Vidigal Archives - eatrio.net

Watching Brazil vs Mexico

19/06/2014/6 Comments/in Musings

Casa Alto Vidigal is a hostel and bar sitting right at the top of the Vidigal favela.

Well, Brazil have played 2 games now and I think it’s fair to say that most people have been pretty underwhelmed. So far there have been no dominant displays and no goleadas – just a feeling that something isn’t quite clicking when the team get out on the field.

I have a few Mexican friends living here in Rio, and they had all decided to watch the game at Casa Alto Vidigal, a hostel/bar at the very top of Vidigal favela. The journey would normally take a little over an hour, so I gave myself a little over 2 hours and set off on my journey. Within minutes I received messages from other friends who were also trying to get to Vidigal – everyone was telling me that the traffic was the worst they’d ever seen in Rio.

Favela Spirit

23/05/2013/10 Comments/in Musings

Sure local government should do these things, but when they don’t, we do it ourselves.

-Favela resident

Favelas are a touchy subject here in Brazil. I think I covered this subject in my previous post (What’s wrong with favelas?), so I’ll just add a minimal pre-emptive clarification: I don’t think favelas are fun or cool, but I do think they are legitimately interesting.

Back in Britain it is common to hear people lament the decline of “community spirit”. Of course there are plenty of great community projects and kind, helpful people, but as a general trend, people have become less sociable with their neighbours over the last 50 or so years.

Many people in London (and other large cities I’m sure) hardly speak to the people who live next door or across the hallway. It’s not uncommon to hear of people dying alone in their apartments and only being discovered weeks later when neighbours notice the smell.

I used to think that this phenomenon of people closing themselves off from their neighbours was caused by the population movement from small towns and villages into large cities and conurbations. It seems a logical reaction to a reduction in living space: people put up metaphorical walls to counter the fact that they are living in such close proximity to each other. But if that were true, how could you explain favelas?

Just a small section of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela.

What’s wrong with favelas?

06/11/2012/21 Comments/in Musings

I first became aware of the word “favela” when I was 12 or 13 – we watched a video in geography class about São Paulo. I don’t remember much about the video itself, but the word stuck in my head and 20 (ish) years later I find myself living right next to one.

Favelas are one of the most prickly subjects in Brazil. Get into a conversation about favelas with a middle class Brazilian and there is a good chance that you will find yourself in trouble before long. I once mentioned to a friend of a friend that Vidigal looked beautiful at night. He responded “Favelas are ugly. You think it is romantic to live without proper sanitation?”.

Vidigal (a favela next to wealthy Leblon) lights up as darkness falls.

Filming in Vidigal

27/07/2012/12 Comments/in Food and drink

One of the nice things about blogging is that once in a while some interesting spin-off opportunity comes along. A little while back I was contacted by a British television company who were looking for information about the restaurants and food scene in Rio. They were preparing to make programme in which a celebrity chef would travel through a selection of countries, learning about the local food and taking part in various cooking challenges. We had a couple of meetings, went for some drinks, I offered some suggestions and a few months later we were filming!

Filming took place in the neighbourhood of Lapa and also in Vidigal, a favela next to Leblon. This is a shot of Vidigal taken from the beach in Leblon at sunset.

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