Something rather strange is going on around here right now. Everyone is taking about tomatoes! Specifically, everyone is talking about how the price of tomatoes in Brazil has gone through the roof! Here’s an example:
Precious crop. “I was going to buy you a diamond ring, but preferred to buy you a tomato.”
And this was the situation in a supermarket in Rio last night:
R$12.79/kg tomatoes. This converts to US $6.43/kg or approx $3 for a pound of tomatoes.
As someone who uses Rio buses every day, this is a rant that has been building up for a while. I started writing this last night and finished it off this morning.
Back in November last year I found myself waiting for the bus after work. It had been a long day in the office and by the time I got to the bus stop it was already dark. At that time of night, with steady traffic, my journey home would take around 2 hours.
I waited and waited, watching eagle-eyed for my bus. It is important to stay alert when waiting for buses in Rio. If you don’t pay attention, a bus can easily fly past – they won’t stop if you don’t stick your arm out and at the crazy speeds they travel you can blink and miss one. On top of this, some buses just don’t stop – this is incredibly frustrating, especially when you’ve waited a long time and you’re at the start of a long slog home.
On this particular occasion I had waited about 25 minutes when my bus finally came into view. The guy in front stuck his arm out at the same time as me and we both frantically waved, willing the bus to slow. At the last possible moment the driver slammed on the breaks and pulled to a halt about 3 bus lengths past the stop. We both turned and ran along the dark road to get to the open doors of the bus.
The other guy had run on in front of me and jumped up into the bus first, but as I was jumping in through the open doors behind him, I realised that the bus driver, oblivious to my presence, had already started to pull away, accelerating hard. I was half in the bus with my left hand on the bright yellow hand rail but the other half of my body was still outside the bus. The acceleration of the bus slammed me into the side of the doors that were still open. As the bus picked up speed I clung on desperately with my left hand and tried to swing the rest of my body in while the bus continued to accelerate. It was touch and go for a moment and I came very close to falling out on to the road and possibly under the wheels of the bus.
After a few of seconds I managed to grab onto the hand rail with my right hand and pull myself in. I was in a dazed state of shock as I stumbled up the stairs, past the surprised driver. I paid the attendant and pushed my way through the turnstile. As I sat down I realised that I had just come very close to having a very serious accident. The bus driver was shouting something back at me and although I couldn’t make out the words, I got the impression from his defensive tone that he was telling me it was my fault. It was only after I had sat down that he pulled the lever to close the doors.
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Fast forward to tonight, 2nd April 2013, and I’m waiting at my bus stop again. A few hours ago I heard the news that a bus had fallen off an overpass in Rio’s Zona Norte, killing at least 7 people and injuring who knows how many more. The full details aren’t in yet, but it sounds like this accident was caused by an argument/fight between a passenger and the driver, possibly because the bus was going so fast that it had missed the passenger’s stop. Reports from the survivors say the bus was travelling at high speed and several passengers actually got off the bus before the crash because they were afraid of the situation.
The Rio bus crash of 2nd April 2013. Vanderlei Almeida / AFP – Getty Images
Ah, Saturday was another nice relaxing day on Copacabana beach! If I have a few drinks on Friday night then I find that nothing clears away the heavy head like a nice swim in the sea followed by a relaxing snooze. But not everyone is so lazy at the beach!
Last weekend I was taking pictures of the sea-spray caught in the late-afternoon sun when a rather outgoing individual approached me and told me to follow him and bring my camera. Here’s what he did:
Raoni doing this party-piece!
Afterwards he told me his name was Raoni – apparently an indigenous name meaning Jaguar, made famous by Chief Raoni Metuktire, a campaigner for indigenous rights and protection of the Amazon.
The Raoni I met in Copacabana appeared to be a bit drunk in high spirits and told me enthusiastically that he had been to Ipswich (in the UK) as part of a Brazilian youth gymnastic team. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him at first, but then I thought “Who’d make up a story about Ipswich?” – surely it’s too obscure to be a lie!
Anyway, he was a funny guy and his leap made for a pretty cool photo!
Someone told me today that Brazil is hit by more lightning than any other country on earth. A little sceptical Googling suggests that Central Africa has more electrical storm activity, but let’s put weather fact pedantry to one side and agree that Rio has its fair share of spectacular lightning storms.
This is probably the most famous lightning shot taken in Rio – Cristo Redentor being struck full on the head (the photographer was Custódio Coimbra).
My offering from Saturday night isn’t quite so dramatic, but notice that I’ve got two lightning bolts in my shot, so you know… in a way my photo is twice as good! rs
Makes a change from photos of the sunrise doesn’t it?
A few days ago I was about to lay the table for breakfast (it was a weekend – I’m never that organised on a weekday). I gazed past the table and out of the window and was struck by how beautiful the view was. As Mrs Eat Rio can testify, at times like this I forget about whatever it is that I’m supposed to be doing and go grab my camera (very annoying if you’re waiting hungrily for breakfast!).
Although the end result was that we had to wait a couple of extra minutes before eating our fried eggs on toast, I think it was worth it.
Enough to make you forget about breakfast (temporarily at least…).
At the time I took the photo I wasn’t trying to be clever – I just wanted to get a shot that would show what it was like to look out of the window from inside. Afterwards I looked at the shot again and thought it looked rather nice, framed by the open windows on either side (please feel free to notice and admire the roses that are growing in the window box too!).
Last night I was looking through the photos I’d taken recently and realised there was another one that I had taken that was inadvertently framed.