Musings Archives - Page 17 of 45

All about me!

25/06/2013/11 Comments/in Musings

There’s an implicit conceit in writing a blog isn’t there? It’s that you judge what you have to say to be worthy of people’s attention. It’s the equivalent of walking into a room and shouting “Listen up everyone! I’ve got something to say and I think you’re going to like it!”. I’m sure we bloggers also have some higher motives, but if we’re honest, I think there’s an element of ‘vanity project’ in every blog.

This makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, but with a subject as interesting as Rio, I feel happy enough to simply describe what I see and speculate on why things are the way they are. Then I can sit back and read what everyone else thinks in the comments. For those that don’t enjoy what I have to say, at least there are some pretty pictures!

The Eat Rio Facebook page just passed 500 likes!

People have all kinds of different ideas about what should go into a blog. Some people use their blogs as a kind of journal through which they invite you into their personal lives, others go for a more cold, fact based approach.

Protests in Brazil – Sem Violência

21/06/2013/21 Comments/in Musings

On Thursday night we saw groups of (mostly) men roaming the streets of Rio without leadership or discipline, indiscriminately committing acts of violence.

If you’ve been following recent events in Rio (and countless other cities in Brazil), you’re probably wondering whether I’m describing the police forces or the minority of protesters who appear to be using these events as an excuse to smash stuff and set fire to things. At times the two groups, supposedly diametrically opposed, have appeared to share many traits.

This morning I arrived at work to see news footage from last night of guys in masks smashing up pretty much anything they could get their hands on. They were pulling down lampposts, setting fire to rubbish, kicking in windows and smashing up banks and shops. Then something that really shocked me – there were a couple of guys smashing in the windows of a bus and then the camera moved to show petrified passengers still trapped inside. Man, that made my blood boil! Some poor old guy was cowering under his chair while this idiot was shattering the windows with a metal bar.

Destroying a bank achieves what exactly? (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

But let’s not forget that there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting last night. The vast majority of them had nothing to do with the wanton destruction and spent a lot of time chanting the mantra: Sem violência! Again, it’s telling that this call was directed at both the police and the violent protesters.

Protests in Brazil

17/06/2013/39 Comments/in Musings

I wonder how many people reading this have NOT heard of the protests going on in Brazil right now. Given that you are all highly intelligent people who like to keep abreast of current events, I expect most of you know at least as much as me on this subject. With that in mind, I’d be delighted to hear your reaction to/interpretation of recent events.

To summarise briefly, the standard ticket price for buses was recently raised by 20 centavos. In Rio, that took a single journey from R$2.75 to R$2.95 (about US$1.50, £1.00) – in São Paulo it’s a little more. On the face of things it seems like a trivial matter doesn’t it?

Crowd control…

In the 3 years that I’ve been in Rio, the bus fare has risen from R$2.35 to R$2.50, then on up to R$2.75 and now R$2.95. There weren’t any meaningful protests with any of those previous increases, so why now? The government line is that the price rise is less than inflation (currently standing at 6.5%). Also, if I compare this standard single fare with the equivalent in London (R$4.20 – R$7.20, depending on payment method), the Rio price doesn’t seem unreasonable. Why are people out on the streets over this? Surely there are more important issues?

I don’t think my opinion has more value than anyone else’s, but seeing as I have this blog, I’ll tell you why I support these protests.

Lagoa

14/06/2013/3 Comments/in Musings

If I remember rightly, I arrived in Rio for the very first time on a Thursday. Mrs Eat Rio picked me up at Santos Dumont airport and drove me around town to show me the sights. To be honest, I think she was actually just trying to drive me back to her place, but she kept taking wrong turns, so by the time we got back, I had seen most of Rio…

Now I’m not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but on that first day (and in fact for several weeks after that) I couldn’t really piece Rio together. As I moved around the city I was confronted by one dazzling and dramatic sight after another. First we’d be following a stretch of beach, then we’d turn a corner and there was a huge mountain, then more beaches, more mountains covered in forest, a huge stretch of water called the Lagoa, and then an even larger body of water call Guanabara Bay (in Portuguese Baía da Guanabara). I had no idea how all these places linked up.

Rio de Janeiro – a bamboozling mix of beaches, mountains, bays and forest.

As you can see on the map above, as well as all those bays and inlets, there is also what looks like a lake a few blocks behind Ipanema. In fact it is a lagoon, most commonly known simply as Lagoa, though its full name is Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. It is connected to the sea by a canal which runs through a narrow park called Jardim de Alá.

As if Rio didn’t have enough amazing sights, Lagoa adds yet another stunning dish to this table, already heaving with delights:

The Mysterious Crawling Cocoon

06/06/2013/28 Comments/in Musings

One of the joys of my life in Rio is the beautiful apartment that we have been renting for the last 2 years. It is in quite an old building with 3 stories and we are lucky enough to have the top floor which includes an incredible roof terrace with an even more incredible view (sorry, this is not meant to sound like bragging – but if you’ve got something nice, it’s good to appreciate it right?).

Lucky me – an ever-changing view that never fails to impress.

As well as the views, having the outside space also gives me the chance to grow some plants. People who follow the Eat Rio Facebook page may have seen that not so long ago my little jabuticaba tree delivered its first fruit.

A proud moment – my little jabuticaba tree’s first fruit! To see what a fully grown tree looks like, click here!

Well a few days ago, I discovered something else nestled amongst the branches of my jabuticaba tree. Something altogether less appetising.

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