Photo post: Lapa Sandwich
I never know quite how to feel when I see this scene in Lapa. Part of me is happy that the little fellow survived, another part of me feels sad that these huge, ugly blocks were put here in the first place.
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A stroll in Saúde with Rolé Carioca
Last Sunday, a friend and I got up super early (well, 8am, but this was a Sunday remember) and headed to central Rio. Centro is a weird place on the weekend – most of the huge, wide streets, so busy and chaotic on weekdays, are almost completely deserted.
It’s a shame because Centro has some beautiful buildings and excellent bars and restaurants but almost everything shuts down on weekend – you half expect to see tumbleweeds rolling down Avenida Rio Branco. There are some oases, such as the Saturday samba on Rua do Ouvidor, but the vast majority of the city centre is completely fechado.
There are some reasons to be hopeful – I’m hoping that regeneration schemes such as Porto Maravilha will help improve the situation. While we wait for that though, there is another option but it means giving up your Sunday morning lie-in.
The people at Rolé Carioca organise walks through the more interesting, historical areas of the city.
Rio’s Lost Paradise
The caretaker, sometimes armed, is on the lookout for intruders. Twice a day he climbs the 37 stories of the residential building he guards. He doesn’t greet anyone as he makes his rounds and no one greets him because despite the fact that it is over 40 years old, the building is empty and no one has ever officially lived there.
The building that I’m talking about is in Barra da Tijuca and was once called Torre Abraham Lincoln – today it is usually referred to simply as Torre H (‘Torre’ means tower). Alongside this abandoned building sits its inhabited and fully functional identical twin, Torre Charles de Gaulle. They make a strange looking pair and immediately caught my eye when I started working nearby.
What’s wrong with this picture? Torre Charles de Gaulle on the left is a fully functioning building complete with satellite dishes and a/c units. Torre H, on the right, is a windowless abandoned shell.
When I first saw Torre H I had no idea how old it was – I thought maybe there was just a short delay in the construction work. As time passed I noticed that there were no windows being put in, no builders, in fact no activity whatsoever.
Beautiful Ugly Rio
In early July 2010 I found myself in Fortaleza in the state of Ceará (just up the coast from the tip of Brazil’s pointy nose). I had made my way by river and overland from the border with Colombia in the north but Rio, my final destination, was still a long way off. And after almost of year of living out of a backpack, staying in hostel dormitories, enduring long bus rides and even longer periods without clean clothes, I had started to crave a break.
The approach to Santos Dumont at dawn
I booked a flight and flew into Santos Dumont, Rio’s domestic airport. Rio’s main international airport, Galeão International, is a long way out of town and in a very ugly area but Santos Dumont is far closer to Rio’s iconic attractions: Copacabana, Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) and Cristo Redentor (the statue of Christ the Redeemer). As you approach Santos Dumont you get an incredible view of these sights and you instantly understand why they call it A Cidade Maravilhosa (the Marvellous City).
Take a chopper ride around the Rio of 1968 to the sound of Gilberto Gil’s Aquele Abraço. Not only a lovely song but also a fascinating view of Rio as it was in the 60s (and you have to admire the pilot’s nerves of steel!).