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We left Bariloche and headed north into very hot and sunny Brazil. We landed in Rio de Janeiro around lunchtime and hopped on a bus out to Ipanema which was the area we had decided to stay in as it has an amazing beach and is apparently one of the safer spots. On the bus from the airport we got our first glimpse of a favela which are the slums / shanty towns which cover much of the Rio area.
We got off the bus in 33 degree heat carrying our packs and wearing hiking pants and boots….needless to say that by the time we arrived at the hostel we were both drenched with sweat and I was very very red faced! We then spent 4 days wandering the beaches, swimming, enjoying the food, beer and people watching to be had in one of the world’s most famous beach cities. The things we noticed about Rio and it’s people are:
1. The people are beautiful and (most of) the bodies are trim taught and terrific
2. The tan’s are very very dark (the locals spend every weekend rotating their sun loungers on the beach so they are pointing directly
at the sun)
3. Small swimsuits are essential whether you are male, female, haven’t decided yet, very very fat or very very thin
4. It’s never too early to have alcohol - locals start as soon as they hit the beach at 10am
5. You can buy anything on the beach from bikinis and sarongs to beer, ice cream, sunglasses, tattoos and frozen fruit puree
6. There is no delineation from where togs are acceptable and not…..they are worn on the beach, to go for a run, to a bar in the evening or out to go shopping
7. Sugar mummies and sugar daddies are very common
8. Beach volleyball is taken very seriously - we noticed everyone from teenagers to 85 year olds playing on the beach and knee brace and elbow brace tans are not uncommon!
Other than lounging around, we did 2 other interesting excursions while in Rio. The first was a very humbling experience….we did a trip to the largest favela in Rio (Rocinha) which you are advised not to by yourself as they are considered the most dangerous areas of Rio. Most of the favleas are built on hills, so we took a bus
to the bottom of the Rocinha favela. The only real way (apart from walking) to get to the top of the favela is to hitch a ride on one of the mototaxis which are motorbikes driven by locals of the favela - there are about 1000 of these for this particular favela. This motorbike ride was one of the most interesting experiences of my life, I hung on for dear life up the very very steep windy main street of the favela and tried to take in the buildings and the people and we overtook other bikes and dodged pedestrians. This street was amazing and is where the drug lords and their armed guards patrol, the buildings were black and the stalls spilled out onto the street. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of this street as the drug lords do not allow it for obvious reasons (and you do not want to upset one of these guys - their favourite form of punishment or fighting tactic is to throw acid in your face). So we each jumped on the back of a motorbike and then began our walk down through the favela. This is when we began
to see how the locals lived. This was an amazing experience but I won’t go into the detail here.....have put lots of info down the bottom for those who have the time or the inclination.
The second thing we did in Rio was go up to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain where you can see from one end of Rio to the other. Usually the main highlight of this viewpoint is being able to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.....of course when we were there it was covered in scaffolding. Other than this disappointment we got some amazing views of the ocean and Rio.
After a couple of days in Rio city we decided to head to a couple of small towns just south of Rio. The first, Paraty which had a beautiful old colonial town but the water close to the beaches was a bit sludgy coz of all the mangroves…..so we spent 2 nights here and then headed to the tropical paradise of Trindade. This town is tiny and has only one street but some really beautiful beaches. The highlight was the day trip we did with 3 other girls from our hostel to a
secluded beach and then to some natural swimming holes which were just beautiful.
The hostel we were staying in was up in the jungle and was so quiet and peaceful. Every day we walked through the jungle to the various beaches and tried not to get sunburnt! One night we had a few drinks in the hostel with all the other kids staying there and then headed to a beach party where I drank a few too many Caprioskas while the locals flung each other round the dance floor!
We finally decided to part ways with this tropical paradise and headed onto to Iguassu Falls…..via Sau Paulo where we spent a delightful 10 hours walking around looking at ugly buildings and poor people. The fresh food market we went to was a bit of a highlight though. Quality food of all descriptions that we got to sample, I particularly liked the olives I got for next to nothing and Aaron was quite taken with the lychees, unfortunately, these cost a little more than we had expected… tasty all the same!
As a whole we really liked Rio state, but Rio de Janeiro city has gone down the
list for a few reasons… It’s really expensive (as is everything in the state), Aaron received a visit from some lovely little bed bugs that turned his legs white with purple polka dots (ok the white bit was already there), and someone managed to clone Aarons card and steal about 1250 pounds. Not somewhere we’ll be keen to visit again soon..!
We are running slightly behind on the blog we realize and will endeavor to bore you with our travels to Iguazu falls, Northern Argentina, the Atacama desert in Chile, and the altiplano of Bolivia (where we are now) in the near future.
Hope all’s well where ever you are….Adios.
Favela: We initially felt a little uncomfortable about going on a ‘tour’ into a place where the poorest of Rio’s inhabitants live but we felt more comfortable when we found out about the charity work the company does with the favela. The company works alongside the favela residents to help educate the children. We were told that in the past children would run up to gringos (tourists) and yell out “hey gringo….moneda moneda!!” and hold out their hands for cash. The education program helps to teach
the children not to beg but to provide something, such as a music demonstration or how to make jewelry to sell. We met a 12 year old boy who had just set up his first stall (being a vacant piece of a building) and he was selling jewelry and scrunchies that he had made for about 1 real (i.e. 40 pennies) and I could tell he was taking his business very seriously. He was friendly and polite and I would have liked to spend an hour or so with him (with a translator of course).
The ‘streets’ which are often wide enough only for your shoulders were amazing. Sometimes as high as you could see were tiny houses built on top of each other, often still under construction. This is considered one of the ‘better’ favelas as it has power and running water. The water and power is supplied by private companies - with water there is the option of paying a small fee to plumb into the water, if you cannot afford this there are small taps all around the favela which the company turns on for free for 30 minutes every 3 hours. In terms of power, a
lot of people to pay the monthly fee for the provision of power but many just stole the power by wiring themselves into the main hubs.
The favela has everything that any other town will have; it has bakeries, butchers, hardware shops and clothing stores. We were told that you could buy anything in the favela that you could outside the favela but it would be a lower grade brand with much less quality and may have ‘fallen off the back of a truck’. We visited a bakery while there and I have to say the coconut cake I have was totally delicious and the store owner was a really sweet man.
The favela has its own government and every few years the people elect a new leader who liaises with the power, electricity and garbage collection services to ensure things run as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately the garbage collection system is not perfect. The residents should put their rubbish in bigger bins on the main street so it can be collected by an external company, but unfortunately most of the residents would have to walk a long way to reach these bins. This means that there is
a lot of rubbish on the streets.
Of course the drug lords control how the favela works, who enters the favela and all activities in the favela are policed by the drug gangs in a very ruthless manner. Every entrance to the favela has a ‘watcher’ who has a walkie talkie and fireworks. If we had entered the favela by ourselves the drug lords would have been notified that a gringo had entered and we would have been ‘supervised’ the whole time we were there. If the police enter, fireworks are let off and the drug gangs are instantly ready to fight or take cover…….from what we learnt they rarely take cover. The police will normally enter the favela with no less than 100 per group and they will usually enter from more than one point. These special police are basically commandos with armored cars, helicopters and automatic weapons. Civilians are often the main casualties in such raids and about 4 weeks before we were there a 13 year old girl was killed in one of these raids.
There is a lot of positive action in the favelas. The people are just trying to get by, send their
kids to school for as long as possible (usually only to the age of 10) and stay safe. All the people we encountered were very smiley and friendly. Most of the people work in the bars restaurants in Rio or they walk along the beach selling drinks and food. Because most of the work available is in the main area of the city the land and houses at the bottom of the favela is the most valuable and expensive. No one owns any land in the favela but the houses are either owned or rented. Once you owned the first level of house you can then build on top of it and rent out that space as long as you had permission from the drug lords.
The gang who runs this favela is called A.D.A (Amigos do Amigos) and they are in constant competition with 2 other gangs ???? for control of the favela.
The A.D.A gang has banned the consumption of crack cocaine within the favela as it leads to increases in crime and addiction within the favela. In other favelas where this ban is not in place very young children are addicted and spend their days
under the influence of drugs.
Before we left the favela we visited a childcare centre which is sponsored by an American and an English company. This centre allows parents to leave their children while they go out to work rather than having to leave them home alone or not being able to go to work at all. The children in this centre were amazing. They had nothing except for the shorts they were wearing and the backpacks they brought their t-shirt in but they were some of the lucky ones. We had been carrying round some tiny teddy koalas for children that we met along the way and I had brought a bundle along for the favela. The tour guide handed out the koalas as we were not allowed within the doors and he explained what a koala was and where they came from and that we had given them to the children. All the children than came and gave me a kiss on the cheek and yelled out “obrigada!!” which means thank you in Portuguese. This was the highlight for my whole trip so far. They were so happy and excited and truly thankful even though they were
only ages 3 - 7. It brought a tear to the eye!!
Overall the favela experience was quite depressing but very humbling. Generally these people were just trying to make a life and keep their children safe but because the wages are so low in Rio they have no choice but to live in an area dominated by the sale of drugs.
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Carlie Smith
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So Jealous
Hi guys, it sounds like you are having an amazing and very educational trip. Thank you for sharing your stories with me and reigniting the travel bug :)