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Rio+20: Indigenous Brazilians come to town.

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You know how it is – you’re waiting on the platform for your morning train, when half a dozen indigenous people in full tribal dress wander past. I am talking about brightly coloured feather headdresses, body paint, spears, bows and arrows.

Índios, checking out the jewellery shop in the station.

 

As the train pulled in, it looked like around 30% of the passengers were indigenous, mostly dressed up and looking pretty amazing. I should point out that this is not the normal way of things – indigenous people (AKA Índios) make up just 0.4% of the Brazilian population. Clearly something was going on.

 

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Three women on walls

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Today I wanted to show you three more beautiful women from Rio, but hopefully today’s offerings will prove a little less controversial! I’ll start off with a woman I have been admiring for a the last couple of weeks. My daily journey takes me through Praça General Osório, one of the main squares in Ipanema. Each morning I have been in a rush to catch the bus and so whilst I’ve gazed longingly, I’ve never found time to take a photo. Last night I decided to go after work instead. Not what you’d call perfect lighting, but the shadows from the nearby gate add a certain je ne sais quoi don’t you think?

 

I haven’t looked into who “DP” is yet, but I would like to offer him/her huge congratulations. A beautiful image. **UPDATE** It isn’t “DP”, it is “Di”, the signature of Di Couto. I met her in a bar a few months back and she was very nice!

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The Art of London

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Regular readers will know that I’ve got a bit of a thing for street art. Rio is covered in the stuff and some of it is really good! In fact, if you’re looking for things to do in Rio, may I suggest you check out my Gardens and Graffiti walk?

Since I’ve been back in London I’ve been keeping an eye out for some interesting graffiti – last night I found some!

 

Lovely isn’t it? This is on a door shutter in Hoxton, east London.

 

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Viva Cazuza!

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A few days before I left for England, I was walking down a street in the neighbourhood of Laranjeiras. There was a large overpass/flyover just off to the right and on the side there was some pretty nice, colourful graffiti.

What is it with eyes on pyramids? I guess the illuminati made it to Rio.

 

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This is a public service graffiti

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What do you think of this?

"First Graham Bell astonished the world with the telephone, then he spooked the criminals". It isn't very clear, but above this main text there is a telephone number in red with the text "Disque Denúncia" - it's a police number so you can report criminals.

 

I spotted it a little while back near Jardim Botanico and it sent me running for my dictionary. Assombrou is the third-person past-tense of Assombrar – which can mean haunt, amaze, astonish, stupefy, petrify and a bunch of other translations. When I asked a colleague they suggested that in this context you might use ‘freak out’, i.e. he astonished the world and then freaked out the criminals.

Anyway, however you translate it, it’s an unusual piece of graffiti isn’t it? So often graffiti seems to be anti-establishment and here is something encouraging people to inform on criminals!

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