Asia-Europe 2012

The favela

Like any big city, Rio has its own sketchy areas. They are called “favelas”. According to statistics, 20% of the lower income population of Rio lives today in a favela.

The tram line was passing by one of these favelas so I decided to check it out. Not very long time after entering, a teenager carrying a handgun approached us. “Nothing new, just another tourist being mugged at gun point in Rio de Janeiro” I was thinking, but soon we realized he was looking for something else. It wasn’t my watch or my camera; instead he just wanted to make sure we weren’t armed. As soon as he realized we were unarmed, we were allowed to leave. Later we found out regular police doesn’t patrol favelas, so a militia is organized to keep things under control.

This experience convinced us to cancel the visit and instead hire a professional guide for a tour in the favelas. But later the same day we met some guys who were advertising tourist services in a square. We found out they were actually living in a nearby favela and they assured us nothing bad will happen should we choose to go back to the favela with them.

We waited until they finished the work and then we went back to the favela, this time even deeper. I was expecting something like I’ve seen in Slumdog Millionaire, but to my surprise nobody was living under cardboard over there. All houses had brick walls and utilities, the only bad thing being there is absolutely no space between the houses. Usually built on the hills, the favelas are separated by the rest of the city with tall, colored brick walls. I was invited inside a house to meet the family, we drank a few beers and then we took each others bikes for a spin (and Palomina was the star of the evening, of course!)

Contrary to our expectations, everybody was in a friendly mood so we left without incident. The only strange thing was to see so many guns in hands of children. But we were also loaded with dynamite (from the mine shop in Bolivia, still unused in the top case), so the situation was somehow even 🙂

1099 favela 1100 favela 1101 favela

Tags: architecture

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

June 17, 2010|17 brazil|Post Comment »

The street car

Once covering many areas of Rio, the street car nowadays runs on only two lines: the departure is common, in the financial district. The line crosses the Lapa district on top of an old aqueduct converted to a bridge and then begins ascending while following crooked, cobblestone covered streets. At some point, near an old commercial zone, the lines split. Either way, the route will continue by coquette villas, parks and, occasionally, observation points. The roads are so narrow that some times other vehicles have to reverse in order to allow the tram to pass. The shorter line ends in a roundabout next to a church while the longer one continues through the forest towards the Corcovado Mountain and the station of the train to Christ the Redeemer. However, the last portion of that line is abandoned, being damaged by a mudslide.

In the last picture you can see Laura shouting me a pole was coming while I was hanging outside of the street car to take better pictures 🙂

1091 tram 1092 tram 1093 tram 1094 tram 1095 tram 1096 tram 1097 tram 1098 tram

Tags: train

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

|17 brazil|Post Comment »

Christ the Redeemer

The statue of “Christ the Redeemer” is situated on top of the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro. Even better than the statue itself is the view one can get from the observation point in front of it.

But the process of getting there brings back memories from Machu Picchu. The train is not working. There is no sign to tell about the alternatives, but at least ten people are waiting near the train station to invite you to the private vans that do the service. The distance is 8km, but the van will only drive you for 4km. There you have to buy another ticket, from the park service, and switch vans. The park service itself looks less like a business and more like a welfare system, being overstaffed: there is a ticket vendor, a guy arranging people to form a waiting line, another one who opens the van door and invites people inside. The van will take you to the top station, where another person is paid to open the van door (there is another one opening doors for people who want to leave as well). Continue towards the entrance, where you will find a person that takes the ticket from your hand and inserts it into the subway-like machine. Proceed towards the elevators, where a person will push the button to call the elevator for you. There are three elevators, with two stops each. Therefore, two buttons in each elevator, but there is another person hired to push those two buttons. Once at the top stop, another person invites you to step outside the elevator.

We path then continues with an automatic stairway where, surprisingly, there is nobody to invite us to advance 🙂 Finally we got to the observation deck. The effort is well worth it!

1086 corcovado 1087 corcovado 1088 corcovado 1089 corcovado 1090 corcovado

Tags: architecture, park, train

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

June 16, 2010|17 brazil|1 Comment

Rio de Janeiro

From São Paulo we continued on BR 101 route towards Rio. There is also another route (shorter & faster) but this one goes closer to the ocean, through nice mountains and jungle.

We spent the first day sightseeing and getting used with the city. Rio is an interesting blend of sea and mountain, old and new, rich and poor. Food is great, many museums to be seen (and many more closed unfortunately) and, of course, beaches for the ones who enjoy the sun.

Towards the end of the first day, Laura spotted a circus. Since none of us had been to the circus in the past ten years, we decided to go. Very nice acrobatics there and also some motorcycle stunts. Definitely worth the R$20 per person paid!

1079 rio 1080 rio 1081 rio 1082 rio 1083 rio 1084 rio 1085 rio

Tags: architecture

Permalink|Comments RSS Feed|Trackback URL

June 14, 2010|17 brazil|Post Comment »

Shopping in São Paulo

About three days earlier, while charging the laptop and the intercom at a gas station, there was a fluctuation of electricity and both chargers got fried. So, at this point we were looking for replacements. Throughout our journey we discovered that, for some unknown reason, in Latin America all businesses of the same type are usually grouped together: all lawyers have offices on the same street, another street full of hardware stores, then many clothing stores together and so on. From a local guy we learned that on Santa Efigenia street we will be able to find our replacements.

When we got there we found at least twenty stores all selling AC and car adapters for laptops, cell phones… OEM chargers, aftermarket replacements… anything! The whole deal set us back R$99 (~US$55).

Then it was time to get a hair cut. So we moved to another street, filled with beauty shops and barber shops. I picked a really big beauty shop, spanning the whole eleven stories of one building. The hair cut was good and cost only R$2. I tried to tip the guy but they didn’t accept, probably not customary.

The conclusion is that the hair cutter is in net disadvantage over the person selling adapters. Assuming he keeps 1/3 of the R$2 for each hair cut (the rest being for the business owner and expenses) he will have to work a full day for a basic car adapter and the rest of the week for a laptop charger. At the same time, the charger seller could get a hair cut each day and still be able to save some money!

1077 shopping 1078 shopping