Rio......City of Sun, Surf, Haviana´s and AK-47´s

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We made it to Brazil, 16 hours later than expected. It had something to do with us missing our flight from Iguasu to Rio, but thats another story for another day.

Rio is one huge city, not quite like the size of La Paz, but it is spread out over a very large area and the climate is so much better too. As soon as we arrived we slipped into something more comfortable as they say in the movies, only for us, that consisted of shorts and singlets. Each day of our 6 day stay, the weather was just perfect, lots of blue skies, minimal breeze and a dry humid heat which generally hovered around 30 degrees celcius.

We did all the touristy things, such as visit the Christ the Re-deemer statue and Sugar loaf mountain, plus Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and also let Dom loose on the shops. For something different we did a favela tour (Rio ghetto), as well as finally managing to find out what the atmosphere is like at a real South American soccer match.

The Christ the Re-deemer statue was pretty impressive, and this is coming from a guy who doesn´t really own a religous bone in his body. We caught a local bus to the district where the statue was located. Once at the base of the mountain we had the option of catching the train up or taking a private mini van with a dozen other fellow travellers. We chose the van as there was a huge crowd waiting to catch the train. A wise choice was made. The van driver was named Ronaldo, who turned out to be a colourful character as he filled us in on all things local, including politics and soccer. He stopped the van half way up the mountain at a lookout point which gave us great views of Rio and also the famous statue high up further on the mountain, ( it would have been much better if there wasn´t an early morning smog around). At this stop Ronaldo produced a supply of bananas which he fed to the local monkeys, enabling all us tourists to have a ´Japánese moment´. We wouldn´t have got all this if we went up on the train. Once we reached the statue, the whole area was packed with tourists, all doing their best impersonations of the statue for their photos, standing with their arms held out horizontally. The view of Rio from the statue viewing area was much clearer as the smog began to clear, and gave us a spectacular views of the whole city.

Sugar Loaf mountain was equally impressive. We had to catch a cable car up a mountain, then once we reached the top of that mountain, it was time to hop on another cable car to get to the top of Sugar loaf. Dom provided good entertainment as she tried to convince the cable car attendent that her ticket for Christ the Re-Deemer was valid for Sugar loaf as she attempted to gain access to the second cable car. I, by this stage, had already scanned my correct ticket through the machine enabling me to pass through the gate to hop on the second cable car. Dom was still trying to scan the incorrect ticket. When she finally realised her mistake she panicked as couldn´t find her Sugar loaf ticket. I was laughing so much at her and had visions of me doing the trip alone as she was sent on the cable car back down, however luckily for her, she found her ticket at the last moment and joined me on the second cable car. Again there were fantastic views of the city from up the top, by this stage we were fortunate enough to have a clear blue sky and pretty much uniterrupted views.

Copacabana and Ipanema Beach´s were what you see on the movies.......well almost. There were plenty of buff bodies, but those were mainly the guys. Although I did see one girl who looked like she worked out and took a healthy dose of ´roids´ to supplement her diet, she was huge. The thought of meeting her in one of the favela´s wasn´t a pleasant one. Everyone 100m or so along the beach front were metal frames to work out if you felt so inclined, enabling anyone to do pull ups, lat exercises, dips etc. I had a photo on a frame doing my first bit of exercise in almost 2 months, proudly displaying my two tone tan. As we walked along the beach there were volleyball and soccer pitches everywhere. On the border of the beach and the sidewalk were beach huts selling beer, coconuts and snacks. There were also lots of oversized, tanned, elderly females in tiny outfits parading around, but disappointingly none of the younger models with hour glass figures that I had anticipated.

The favela tour was an eye opener. We were driven to a favela named Rocinha and allowed to wander around under suspervision. We were given strict instructions of what we could photograph and what we couldn´t. The Favela is under the control of a 24 year old drug lord and is basically a no go zone for the police. The drug dealer and his henchmen basically enforce their own local rules and regulations. So it is a fair bet that the teenager approaching Dom and I, whilst armed with an AK-47 machine gun was going to be on the list of ´don´t even think about it ´for photographing. We saw so many drug dealers with big impressive looking machine guns. One of the rules in the favela is that everyone must be identifiable, therefore no one is allowed to wear motorcycle helmets that cover their faces. You can wear helmets but they are to be delicately balanced to top of your head, which in the event of a crash would render them pretty pointless. The people were really friendly ( well apart from the drug dealers, but Im sure minus their guns they would be really cute and lovable too) and it wasn´t what either off us expected. I anticipated povery and squalor, but there was none of that, sure there were houses cramped up on one another, but ultimately is was just another community, with banks, hospitals, shops etc albeit a community with a different set of rules for the inhabitants. We even stopped at a local bar for a Caparinha, which was a third of the price of those elsewhere and probabaly twice as strong too!!!.

We went to see a proper soccer match. None of this Paraguayan stuff and a mere 11 riot police. This time there was a crowd of excess of 30,000, a modern stadium, lots of chanting, passion, drums, goals, everything that I anticipated. There were a squad of police with fierce looking German Shepherds straining to get off their leashes, police on horseback near every entrance to the stadium, police with sub machine guns, and so many police meandering through the crowd with wooden batons that were over 120cm long which always adds to the drama and spectacal of the occasion.The home team Botafogo lost 2-1 but a good evening was had by all...well except maybe the Botafogo fans, we left just before the end in case there was a riot. I even got to an opportunity to meet Craig Foster the SBS soccer commentator and ex Socceroo International, who was sitting 2 rows in front of us. I had a chat with him at half time and he couldn´t believe he was chatting to a guy from Perth at some random soccer match in Brazil.

Dom loved her shopping, the big thing was Havianas, the Brazilian made thongs( of the shoe variety not the g.string). In Rio everyone wears Havianas, they are the footwear of choice. In Australia you pay anywhere upwards of $25AUS a pair, whilst in Brazil you can pick them up for the equivalent of about $10AUS. We went from shop to shop whilst Dom selected a pair for her, some for Linda, some for others. In Rio everyone sells Haviana´s, from the local corner store, to the supermarket, the bigger department stores, sports stores and even a butchers shop near Copacobana Beach. I bought my pair from the duty free shop at the Rio International Airport. Needless to say I got the special treatment as a result. As were were going through customs I was asked if I had anything to declare, so obviously I declared my duty free Havianas. The customs guy said, ¨Well Mr Thwaites would like to be upgraded to business class?¨. How could I refuse. He then asked, ¨What about Mrs Thwaites?¨ I explained to him that her Havianas were purchased in a department store. To which he replied, ¨Unfortunately she has to retain her original seat, is that a problem?¨ No problems for me.

Stay tuned for our next episode in Montevideo and see if I get mugged for my duty free Havianas.

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Comments

[Ram]

I can relate
Hi Dos Gringos! Your experience reminds me of my own. Once I was a visitor, and now I am a permanent resident of Brazil. I can´t stop blogging on this beloved country at http://braziltravel-ram.blogspot.com/ Enjoy your next visit here! Ram