Hey there,
Well yesterday spent a lovely quiet day relaxing and getting over the hangover! Don´t know what went wrong with the caipirinhas... oh well. Just chilled out at the hostel - most things were shut on Sunday so it was a brilliant excuse to recharge batteries and basically do nothing.
Was meant to walk up to see Jesus Christ the Redeemer statue (wanted to see it - well wanted to come to Rio to see it - ever since watching the DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliette - remember the opening scene?!) However my friend Paul was a lazy bastard and didn´t wake up, and it was cloudy anyway, so decided to give it a miss. Too many people with guns around the area for me to walk up it (for 3 hours) by myself. Oh well. Will do another day.
So decided to go on a favella tour - pretty much the only way to see the favellas safely. It was brilliant to go inside Rocinha, the biggest one in South America. Only 300,000 people! There are 800 favellas in Rio state, and 40% of people live in a favella. Unemployment is 10% - brilliant mentality of everyone who is able, should work. The theft crime is very low in the favellas - much community attitude, and people don´t steal off others who have nothing. So they go to the rich beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema instead to steal off the gringo tourists! The favellas are preparing for Carneval at the moment (the winning team gets 2,000,000 Rs - about 700,000 pounds) and can make about 10 million Rs with shows around the world. So they practise from 1am on Sunday mornings until 7am, when it gets hotter and people have to work... The favella was crazy - but far better than I imagined. Some of the streets were very narrow - motorbike taxis abound here. And they don´t pay for their electricity - instead they get their electrical friend to rig up a free line for them, but when it goes wrong it is impossible to fix, so they put another line in instead... with the result that the electricity pylons look like the cat has been at the wool... pictures to follow! Open sewers are a problem and cause many diseased such as bronchitis, pneumonia, TB, asthma and so on. It was very smelly! But the people were welcoming (only because we were with a guide and so weren´t any reason to be suspicious). Such an interesting experience, and really glad that I had a fantastic guide for it.
Ran errands this afternoon, and have just been out for supper with an English guy I travelled to Rio with - Paul. Very tired as not slept properly at all since being here due to the heat, but luckily now they have given us an air conditioned room for the same amount of money which is much better. Looking forward to that! Still getting used to the place. Most important is where to go and where is not safe to go. We cannot walk to some beaches because gangs will wait at the exit of the tunnel to rob us, so have to be careful! But as long as we take sensible precautions, and don´t take out anything that we are not scared to lose, it is generally fine. Absolutely loving the raw energy here...!
Anyways, bed time calls. Another beach tomorrow - it is a hard life!
Lots of love,
Alice xxx
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