Rio Rio

Arrived in Rio yesterday and got a little disappointed.
Well, not because of Rio in itself, I don't think Rio can disappoint me, but because of the weather. Of course I know you can never trust or count on weather here, but I was so hoping to get some sun and beach life here before going back to the Swedish autumn/winter, that's why the heavy rain really disapponted me. I was immediately considering to change my flight and go back one day earlier.

This morning however the sun was shining and I got some lovely hours on Ipanema beach. At lunch time I left the beach to go in to the Centro part of the city, where I haven't really been that much before. From what I have read and seen on pictures I thought I would like that part. And I did! Even more than I thought! It is just lovely!! As everything about Rio. Ok, it is pretty run down in parts and I can imagine it gets rather deserted and seedy at night or on weekends, but it is lovely and for sure has great potential.

I have never been to Barcelona, but from what I hear it is a  great city, everyone seems to love it. And aparently the big hype for Barcelona came after the 1992 Olympics, when the city got a good make-over and was "discovered" by the world. If Rio and Brazil play their cards well, Rio has a chance to beat that by far! I already believe Rio is one of, if not the, coolest city in the world, but of course it also have quite a few obvious (and less obvious) problems and if she can come to terms with at least some of them it will be magic. 

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.

Eu sou Tijuca

What a crazy fun evening/night!!
We went to the sambadrome of Unidos da Tijuca. As it is only a matter of weeks until carnival all the samba schools are rehersing as crazy and as we kind of decided that Tijuca is our school we went there. It was absolutely amazing!! So much energy, music, dance, sweat and happiness in one location!!! And all the beutiful and talented people. Not only the young and slim but also the older and rounder people dance like gods. And the music...!!!
After the carneval-rehersals were over, som other people took care of the live music (well actially some of them the same) so now it became massive brass-music and drums. Absolutely fabulous!!

It was a long timw since I danced this much!!

Connected travelling

It is amazing the way people travel now. Everyone is constantly connected. In the back-packer-style guesthouse where I am staying, in the evening when people gather in the bar/pool area a majority of them have their laptops with them sitting chatting, surfing, emailing, skyping etc. If they don’t have a laptop they have an I-phone. I should not say too much about it as I am one of them myself sitting with my laptop, but this is actually the first time I brought it for a holiday and mostly to stay in touch with my friend here without spending a lot on the mobile phone bill roaming via Sweden twice. It definitely has other advantages as well, but I think I have never seen so many connected travellers in one place. What happened to take a break from the normal world and getting absorbed with the environment?

Something's happened

Something has happened. I can not exactly say what or why but maybe it takes at least a week to see and live what is around you in a new environment. What has happened is that people all of a sudden see me and I am feeling a part of the city in another way. My friend has all the time been going on about the sensuality of Rio, how people interact, flirt and socialise in a very warm, loving and sensual way. I was pretty sceptic to say the least. Ok, I have seem him interact with people that way, but hey he has been here before and he knows people. And the fact that I felt invisible and that no one flirted with me, whereas he got all the attention, I at least partly blamed on the fact that we mostly mingle in the gay areas of Ipanema. But then today something happened. All of a sudden people see me and give me appreciative smiles and comments and are very flirtatious.

Today I went for a short shopping round. I put on a dress that I like, but actually never have used. It is simply too tight, too short, too everything, but I thought it might work here. It obviously did. I got a lot of positive attention. So this is the carioca-style!
One of the things I wanted to buy was a bikini. There are lots of them, but that also means difficult to choose and some are also very expensive, which might make sense if you live in a country where you can use it more or less every day of the year, less so in Sweden. Anyway I found one shop with a big selection to reasonable prices. I started browsing on my own but quite soon a young salesman came up to me; introduces himself as Bauer (don’t know why most Brazilian men I talk to have German names), asks for my name and starts talking. He does not know many words in English, but those he knows he uses well. He is just so cute and so charming. He starts showing me what bikinis he thought I would look good in and really takes a close look at me to find out what size I need. I know it is his job, but the way he looked at me made me blush, goddammit!

When I find one I like he takes out another, more or less the same but in more bluish/greenish colours. I tell him I like the first one better as its colour are “happier”. He agrees but then tells me that the blue one will look very good with my eyes and smiles his most charming smile. Man! You just sold a bikini! When I had decided for myself he asked me if I wanted to buy something for my husband. It was just so charming and nice, nothing pushy and sleazy about it. I smiled to myself and walked out with two bikinis and had spent far much more that I had planned to. Bikinis that I most probably never will use anywhere outside Brazil! But it felt good.
Then it continued that way the rest of the day, in the juice bar, in the street at the beach. Something’s happened.

Business diversification

Today I discovered that not only the grilled-cheese-vendors at the beach may double as drug dealers, so do the kanga-vendors. When the man trying to sell kangas to me realised I was not interested he could offer me both marihuana and cocaine. Very diversified and flexible business!

Observations

# 1 Braces
I have noticed a lot of adult people with braces here in Rio. That is quite unusual for someone coming from Sweden, where this is taken care of around the early teens. I suppose here they don’t have the same public dental care and people have corrections made when they grow up and make money to pay for it themselves. Maybe it is also a sign of the developing economy. People coming from families that could not afford this when they were kids, now earn money enough to do it now. Or maybe it is sing of increasing focus on looks and beauty and less acceptance for difference?

# 2 Latest sports fashion
Ankle socks seem to bee sooo last year here. I have seen plenty of young and fashion-aware girls wearing white, thick knee-high socks to their work-out outfits. Often together with long, black or dark tights and the socks are really pulled up all the way to just below the knee. No, it is not very beautiful. I wonder if it is a new thing that might come to Europe as well, or maybe this is a result of living in a country where you normally never really need socks at all. If you use them, let it show!

Weather report

Something’s happened. The two last days the water has been cold. People with more Rio-experience say it has never been this cold. Somehow a different current must have reached the bay. And I can agree. It has been cold, freezing cold, even for someone used to swim in Swedish waters. My friend compared it with the ocean around Cape Town. Not that it is a huge problem when the temperature still is over 30 degrees.  Simply refreshing!

The weather is apparently also different from what it normally is like. Since I arrived a week ago we have only had one single rain shower, the first evening, and there has hardly been a cloud in the sky. Me like! 