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Published: November 24th 2009
Hi all,
Sadly we're yet to find a computer with a USB port but as soon as we do, photos - I promise.
We've been in Rio for just over a week but we've done so much it honestly feels like a month. Our Iberia flight was in stark bitter contrast to the luxury of Qatar, but we arrived Sunday night at our youth hostel very tired and jet lagged. It was kind of beneficial that we were so tired as our first youth hostel really wasn't geared up for backbackers..I was in a girls-only dorm with Brazilian students who didn't speak a word of English, which was a little awkward. They were sweet though and we communicated through a variety of sign language and gesticulation. We then moved on to Rio Backpackers in the Copacabana district. On Wednesday (more importantly) Frank's birthday I treated him to a favela tour in the morning. The tour included a motobike ride up to the Rocinha favela. One of the most frightening things I've ever done - they speed up there with no idea of what's coming round the corners, weaving through traffic and no helmet. But it was the only way up and we survived. When we got there we were given a safety talk by our guide - no taking photos of certain areas or people carrying guns(!!!) and walkie talkies...crazyness. The watchers (boys hired by the drug managers) always know who enters and leaves the favela. Our guide stressed that 'City of God' is not a film about the favela but about the drug gang's lives inside the favela and that there are many people inside the favela who are just very poor, honest and hard working people. Also, there is a sense that the media portray all the people who live there unfairly, coupled with the fact that the police won't even go in. But it's people outside the favela that buy the drugs and sell on at higher price and provide the drug lords with weapons. Incredibly, the highest drug lord in Rocinha is just 23 but our guide added that he won't expect to live much longer, eventually he'll be shot by a rival gang or arrested. There are 1000 favelas in Rio and only 2 of them aren't controlled by the drug lords. The poverty in the favela was so different to what we'd seen in the poor villages of Tanzania and Malawi. These people had clothes, electricity and TV (stolen by attaching a cable to the lines directly from their houses)...but there's sewage floating down the streets through the aquaduct that people just use a
as a tip. Storms mean that the houses(built on top of each other - sometimes 3 or 4 stories high) often collapse and the people lose everything. In Africa we saw people that had nothing, not even shoes on their feet...there's very little rubbish as there's very little waste - everything is recycled.
In the same evening we went to a football game at the Maracana - Fluminenese vs some Urguay team. Best football game I've ever seen, the supporters go wild with flares, fireworks, massive flags, drums...you genuinely feel like you're going to war. The Brazilians scored two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game when they were losing 1-nil....then a fight broke out among the players, the police and security were called in. It was more like a show then a game - incredible atmosphere.
We've also done sugerloaf mountain at sunset which was magical and we saw the Christ statue this morning - I can't even describe how gorgeous the views were up there. It hasn't quite hit us we're in Rio, it's just the most beautiful city. We've been staying at the Mellow Yellow youth hostel for 4 days...it's like uni for slightly older people, so friendlyand sociable. We've been tempted out every night, we went to a Lapa street party Friday which was fun but not as authentically samba as we'd hoped...heading to a club called Democraticos on Wednesday which is where the locals go, so should be good. The only thing about Rio is that it comes at a price, I've spent so much money here - some things are almost London prices. In a week I've spent what should last a month in Bolivia - oh no.
Anyway, just a little taster of what we've been up to. I hear it's raining horizontally in the UK. Ha.
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Val
non-member comment
Wow
Hey Em, wow... this sounds great. I was there 3 years ago and everything sounds so familiar. Did most of the same things and had the same kind of impressions about this beautiful city. We only spend there a few days but was only a bit dissapointed about the nightlife. But hey, I guess you have to know where you're going. Salvador was a city I loved. Hope you'll have time to go there. Have fun Em. We're missing you!