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For Funk’s Sake!

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Picture this: You have been doing a lot of long days at work – getting up early, coming home late (you rarely have time for a proper lunch). It is Monday night and you are still tired from the weekend when there were various late-night events, at which your attendance was non-negotiable. 


When you got home from work tonight you managed to get a quick bite to eat and then head to bed – it is just before midnight and apart from the occasional dog bark, the night is quiet and peaceful. You close your eyes, so tired that you can feel your heavy body sinking deeper and deeper into the mattress as sleep takes you. Half-dreams flit in and out of your consciousness but you are too tired to take much notice. And then…

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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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Views To Get Out Of Bed For

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Some problems are good to have aren’t they? Like when the view outside your window at 5.30am is so amazing that you simply have to get out of bed and take a few photos. Then you can’t get back to sleep and you find yourself tired for the rest of the day. I’m not going to get much sympathy here am I? 


Well if I’m going to suffer (yes, suffer) then it seems only right that something good comes out of it. Like today’s post! So here are some of the more memorable views from my window that have sent me scampering for my camera:

This was yesterday morning. We have a saying in England: “Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”. This is the old way of saying that it’s going to rain (everyone knows shepherds can’t stand the rain right?). Well, judging by yesterday’s weather, that saying doesn’t work here.

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Beautiful Ugly Rio

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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!).


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