Step Up

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In case you didn’t know already, there are a lot of very steep hills in Rio. The thing about building on steep hills is people need a way of getting up and down. I suppose the default solution to this age-old problem is simply to do nothing – walk up and down the steep hill. At the other end of the scale you have trams, elevators and cable cars.

But cable cars and elevators are expensive, so for the most part the people of Rio make do with steps. Living in Santa Teresa I know all about these as I have three routes up/down the hill I live on and two of them involve long, steep steps.

7 banks of 11 steps – I think even Rocky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8&t=1m55s) would find that hard going. For some reason the little girl on the right decided she’d prefer to use the storm drain. Kids are weird sometimes aren’t they?

 

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The Second Coming

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Last weekend a few friends and I went up to see Cristo Redentor (Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue). Although I see it every day, I had only been up once before – a few weeks after I arrived in Rio. That first time it had been a clear, bright, sunny day and we’d gone up around lunchtime. This time, more by luck than by design, we went up a little after sunset.

If we hadn’t spent so long boozing in the bar down in Laranjeiras then we would have been and gone before the moon started getting involved.



Wow! I really recommend it. Going up during the day is great for getting a really good look at everything, but if you’ve already done that then try going up in the early evening – it’s a very different experience. 


The views of the city are stunning and the statue itself has the added element of lighting. For most of the time the statue was lit with a blue/white light, but occasionally they’d flash up something different (for about 3 seconds Jesus was dressed in a lovely rainbow robe that might have suggested certain sympathies at odds with the Catholic Church – unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch that on camera). However, I did manage to get some nice shots so I thought you might like to see a few.

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Quiz – Brazilian Hand Gestures 3

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Whoop! It’s Friday (in case you hadn’t realised). Back in my IT days we used to describe any obviously crappy or hurriedly written piece of software as a ‘Friday Afternoon Package’ to reflect the fact that during most Friday afternoons, people (especially software programmers) are more interested in watching funny clips on YouTube or playing online games than doing actual work. 

Friday Afternoon Package…



Well, as my little contribution to your very own Friday Afternoon Package of procrastination and ineptitude, here is the third in the series of Brazilian Hand Gesture quizzes. 

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Sun For Sale

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If you Google “What to do in Rio when it rains” you will get a lot of hits. That’s because most of the nicest ‘Rio activities’ involve being outside – lazing on the beach, a churrasco at a friend’s place, a walk to the waterfall, wandering and sight seeing. And of course rain = clouds = you won’t see much from the lookouts at Pão de Açucar or the Cristo. 


When it starts raining, many people seem to go into suspended animation, cancelling everything until the rain stops and normal service can be resumed. 

 

Call everyone to cancel the churrasco, ensure you have plenty of snacks in the house and then prepare for an 80s movie marathon…


But it doesn’t have to be this way! If your event simply can’t be rescheduled and you have enough cash, then there is a solution. The answer lies with an indigenous spirit named Cacique Cobra Coral.

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Skimpy hotties, wrinkly oldies and everything inbetween

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The ‘ideal’ body is a very subjective thing. Where one guy sees a complete hotty, someone else takes one look and says “she needs to eat a sandwich“. Some women like their guys a little on the tubby side (for these women I am thankful), others prefer the chiselled abdominizer model. And of course there are men and women who are into men and women respectively. Well whatever you’re into, you’ll see it on the beach in Rio. And they won’t leave much to the imagination! 


Regardless of body-shape or age, Brazilian women prefer a very skimpy cut to their bikinis – both top and bottom. When the film Rio came out here, there was quite a big fuss that the derrière in the trailer was wearing a very conservative bikini:

 

Seriously, there were articles in the newspaper about this split-second shot and how it wasn’t an accurate representation of Carioca beachwear because it wasn’t revealing enough!

 

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