Cidade de Deus

During my last 2 days in Rio, i've been playing a tourist visiting different parts of Rio. This city has lots more to offer than just the carnaval or the beaches. But like everywhere else in the world, this city has a good part and a bad part.

The devil: favela Rocinha

According to Wikipedia, Rocinha is the largest in Rio with an estimated population of 60 thousands to 150 thousands. It is also the most the most developped in Latin America. It is built on top of a hill overlooking the richest areas in Rio: Leblon, Ipanema, .... So even in poverty, people still want to enjoy life the most they can. So who said poor people have bad taste? I worked with richer people and believe me, some have really bad taste in EVERYTHING!

Here are two pictures of the favelas from my friend Tom (http://www.justonepack.com/).

 

So back to our adventure, our friend Rhianon who works as a volonteer in this favela (teaching young girls how to sew) took us there for lunch. So we went there to meet an interesting person: DJ Zezinho. This cool guy is a favela resident and organizes tour for tourists. Check out his website at http://favelatour.org/

His mission is to tell us about the REAL life of the people who live in there and demystify the myths we have. Perhaps to be more specific, the myths that I have about favelas. And he did a good job explaining how people live there in harmony with their "special" police.

No doubt, favela residents are poor and are sort of "forgetten" by the brazilian government. But they are real fighters. With vairious sources of income, they have their own buses/taxis system from and to other parts of Rio. They build their schools, community centers, ...  So where do the shootings and chaos that we've heard in the media come from? Those happens when the *outsiders* come into the favela and decide to try make things *better* for them.  And how about the violence we see in the brazilian drama "City of God" ? It was over exagerated. But don't get me wrong, i didn't say there is no problem. There is but like everywhere else.

I wonder if HQ technicians would be able to fix a line here.

Motor-Taxis in the favela

This lady has been patiently waiting for a while but no motor-taxi has stopped for her. Hmmm... i wonder if she was too *voluptous* for one motor-taxi? maybe i'd tell her to call for two motor-taxis! lmao.

The god:  Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer is one of the reasons why i came to Rio. Well hullo!!! he is the brazilian Gaudi!

Oscar Niemeyer

And his Niteroi's chef-d'oeuvre (Museu de Arte Conptemporanea de Niteroi - MAC), is just AMAZING. I was like Alice in Wonderland! and I spent the whole afternoon at that museum while my friend Tom was taking a tour with DJ Zezinho in Racinho.

Another gem in Rio is the Museu de Arte Moderna. This building was built in 1953 by a different architect, Affonso E. Reidy. In 1978, this building was devasted by fire and rebuilted by volonteers. Now it houses over 11,000 works including paintings, scultures and angraving by both brazilian and foreign artists.

Who said concrete was boring? And the caviar is: the exhibit of COOPA-ROCA + Chrisian Lacroix. A collaboration of the french designer and a the Cooperative of seamstresses & craftworkersliving in Rocinha favela called XCLC.  A brilliant idea of combining the art of fashion and brazilian handscrafted skill. Since camera is not allowed inside the museum, the following pictures i found in the internet show some pieces of the exhibit.

These pieces are wrapped in silk ribbon and shantung crochet. Ah! how could we live without fashion???

And also it was time to say goodbye to new friends that i've met in Rio. Most of them are travellers but also cariocas. Thank you all for sharing your stories, your laughs and your time with me. The past 2 weeks have been memorable. Au revoir Rio!

There will be answer.... let it be!

Today, my fellow vietnamese traveller Tom (http://www.justonepack.com/) and I met other Couch Surfers in Rio. First, it started with a small international group meeting at an irish pub for lunch. International because around that table, there were people from Australia, Candada, Denmard, England, Lithuania, United States and off course Brazil. Can you tell who has which nationality?

While waiting for our dinks/meals, i went outside and took some pictures. Here are some of the interesting shots of the streets from the balcony of the pub.

Like usual, the police men are not too far away... could you find them on the 1st picture of the street? I hope you had tried "Where is Charlies?" before.

And off cours this picture is for my *girlfirends* at home! ;-)

Then we went to an open market nearby.  At that market, i found a stand where they sell cool leather masks. And off course, two catched my attention: one black & one red. i would love to buy them but since i am just at the begining of my trip i am NOT going to shop. hmmm.... since when i become reasonable?

At night, we decided to chill out at one of the stands on the Copacabana Beach, Vivo. According to our friend Rhainon (http://rhianonsrio.blogspot.com/) from England, this one has the best and cheapest caipirinha in Copa. Not that i know anything about alcohol but if she said so, it must be it. The girl is a real *connaisseur*! ;-)

Along the night, other friends have joined us for the evening and it turned out that it was a fantastic evening with so much fun with live music and singing...

Did i say that we had a lot of fun? Yes, my friends and I we tried to figure out what is "the answer"  that we've been waiting for so long John Lennon promised us from "Hey Jude!" or perhaps what was "the question"?

There will be an answer .... let it be... let it be...