Black and Red or Black and White?

If you want to be a real carioca you need to have one favourite samba school and a favourite football team. Finding the samba school was easy. As we visited Unidos da Tijuca of course I am a Tijuca. Their colours are even blue and yellow!!

Finding a football team (in two weeks without even watching a game and having no clue about the teams of Rio) was not as easy. However, already some of the first days I noted some red and black striped flags with some emblem on, that I kind of liked. I saw it everywhere, flags on the beach, stickers on cars and even on the beer cans, but I did not know what it was. On the last day I learned that was the emblem of Clube de Regats do Flamengo, one of the bigger Rio teams, also the club of Ronaldinho. So, I decided Flamengo is my Rio football team. Just because I like their colours and symbol.

Later I learned more about the club and I felt happy with my choice. Not least because it actually started as a rowing team and sill have rowing too, which you can see from the name. But while reading about it I also read about other Rio teams and learned that one of the other big Rio teams is Botafogo de Futelbol e Regatas. Then it became a little bit difficult. Already from the start I just liked the word Botafogo. It just sounds so cool (in Portuguese) and it is so fun to say. Their symbol is a lone white star on a black escutcheon and their colours are consequently black and white. Also very stylish. And they also do rowing. So, now I don't know. Can one have two teams?! Or does that make me unfaithful?!

One Week Later

So, now I have been home for a little more that a week and still Rio is very much in my mind. Not only because of the sand falling out of bags, pockets and books and not because the cold that I caught the last days in Rio is still hanging on, but because the city really made a strong and lasting impression.

As I made my decision to go there very sudden and without much preparation I had read and studied far less than I normally do before I travel to a new place. What I knew was mostly the standard clichés about samba, beach, carnival and crime and also what my friend told me, which was also stereotypical in a way. He talked about the sensualism of Rio and the Cariocas, their joie de vivre and the very easy going lifestyle and how very special the place is. Looking back I must admit that most of it is true. The only thing that I did not experience was crime and violence. Many have asked me about whether it is dangerous or not in Rio. It is of course difficult to say anything about the security situation in Rio after a two weeks visit only because nothing happened to me. Maybe I was just lucky. No, not only lucky. I stayed in one of the safest areas of the city and of course one has to be careful. There are places where you should not go alone after dark and you should be careful carrying around valuables. But tell me the place where you should not take these precautions. There are places in Stockholm where I don’t go alone after dark either. And crowds attract pickpockets everywhere. However these precautions were never anything that I felt impeded on my movements or what I wanted to do. I felt absolutely comfortable walking home alone at night and staying late alone at the samba school and taking a taxi home alone felt completely safe. To be honest I felt more safe there than in Stockholm at times.

So, what about the other things. Yes, I think a lot of it is true. There is a very relaxed atmosphere over the place, maybe simply because it is too hot and humid to stress, but nevertheless. The beach culture and the music are indeed very sensual. People flirt in a very positive and friendly way that does not mean anything more than just that, it is just a way of interacting. Before I came I had heard about the minimal bikinis, floss bikinis, and thought the beaches would only be full of beautiful, slim and tanned bodies. And there are a lot of very beautiful people on the beaches, people who like to show themselves. The funny thing however is that is not only the young, fit and beautiful showing themselves off in tiny bikinis. No, also the older, the rounder and not so very beautiful also show their bodies in minimal swimwear and do not feel ashamed or embarrassed about that. That I like!! In Sweden I would say the tolerance is much lesser and the verdict hard on anyone showing up in too small a bikini if she has a few kilos more then some ideal. “How can she?!” “Who does she think she is?!

The same things go for dancing. By the way; Yes, they do dance in the streets!! Also here, everyone joins in. The old, the fat and the ugly as well as the young, slim and beautiful. Now writing this, I choose words as “fat” and “ugly”, but when I think about it they were not fat or ugly, the music and joy made everyone beautiful. As it is very hot and very humid everyone sweats the whole time, which means no one cares about that either. Who cares if you have some sweat marks on you shirt, so has everyone! Even if you can’t dance, as a tourist at a samba school, it is not a problem. People are very happy to help and show you how to make the steps, and they do it in a very positive and appreciative way not to make you feel bad or stupid not knowing how to move your feet (or your ass) to a hellish speedy samba rhythm. I only regretted I do not speak Portuguese so I could talk more to people. I have the feeling it would have been very interesting.

Well, on top of this you have a very beautiful landscape, fascinating architecture, some of the most beautiful beaches, parks and nature, lovely music and fantastic fruits. So how can you but love the place? I want to go back and in a way I am still there.

A Visit in the Favela

The last day of my stay in Rio we went on a tour into one of the favelas. My friend and I had been talking a lot about whether we should do it or not. Those kind of events can be rather tacky things, poverty tourism or misery voyeurism, neither of which we would like to contribute to. On the other hand the favelas are such a big part of Rio’s (and Latin America’s) reputation and character that it would be strange never to have seen what it is all about. But as it seems unadvisable to go there on you own and if you don’t know anyone living there who can take you, there are not that many options. So after having deliberates pros and cons for quite a while we decided to go on a tour with Be a local.

A bus took us to the entrance of the Rocinha favela. From there we went on a motorcycle taxi up to the top of the hill, from where we then would walk down the narrow lanes and alleys. During the ride up the hill I for the first time really started to wonder if we had made the right decision. The drivers were racing each other up the winding serpentine road, overtaking each other and criss-crossing between busses, cars, pedestrians and animals at a hellish speed. Of course we did not wear helmets or any other protection. Ok, I thought, this is exactly what you are NOT supposed to do while travelling. I think my friend was particularly nervous as he just a couple of days before had realised his travel insurance had expired. But anyhow, we all survived.

Rocinha is supposedly the biggest favela in South America with an estimated population of 200 000, but of course no one really knows, as no one living there is registered and no one counts. The government has no real control of the favelas and the ones living there don’t pay any tax, which of course also is one of the reasons why the drug lords have established themselves there. This might now be changing. The government has started to clear, or pacify, some of the favelas and promised to solve the problems by building new houses for the inhabitants etc. There are obvious problems in the favelas, the sanitary situation is not great, in some there are high levels of crime and violence connected to the drug-trade and the complete lack of town and country planning poses risks in it self. Almost all favelas are built on steep slopes on the hills and at risk for landslides. So something needs to be done, and should have been done long time ago, but no one really cared. Now with the World Cup and the Olympics coming up that has changed and things are happening. Therefore it was indeed interesting to see what it looks now.




I must say that our hesitation about to go or not to go very soon changed, the guide was very good and knowledgeable and knew all the people we met and seemed to be well seen in the area. No one seemed to object to us being there, on the contrary. We visited a gallery, a bakery, a social project and some small shops that had the opportunity to sell things to us and earn a few Reais. Therefore it did not feel as we were voyeurs and we were both very happy we did the tour.

Of course it is poor and crowded and the buildings are very simple, but somehow it was more well-organised than I thought. Although you had open sewers running along the paths and loads of garbage everywhere and the smell was sometimes overwhelming, the insides of the houses and shops all seemed very clean and tidy.



As it is sprawling high up on the hillside you have a stunning view from many places in the favela. Then it also becomes very clear how close the poorest and the richest live in Rio.