Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Rio

We're currently on a six hour bus ride from Rio to Sao Paulo (getting our internal flight to Bogota,Col-oooom-bia in the morning). Even after just three weeks of travelling we've adjusted really well to the long bus journeys- anything under 16 hours now feels short!!

After nearly a week in Rio I've certainly developed mixed emotions about the place. The natural surroundings are just breathtaking with the green hills and mountains and gorgeous beaches it certainly has a lot going for it. That said the rich/poor divide is huge and obvious everywhere you go. One street can be affluent at one end, with it's residents expected to live until they're over 70 yrs old and just metres away there's poverty, with their life expectancy parallel to Sierre Leone.

The really difficult pill to swallow is that these people have no opportunity to ever work themselves out of poverty. The cleaner in out hostel works 9 hours a day, 6 days a week for 500 reias a month which is less than £200 and her rent in the favaela is 200 reias leaving her and her family £100 a month to live on (and living is by no means cheap in Rio)! School there is only 4 hours a day from 6-14 years so if by some miracle on this limited education they reached the same academic standard as a well off child, how on earth would their parents pay for university when the family has so little to life on?! So the cycle just continues.

Outside of this Brazil has so much going for it, with a wealth of natural resources, it could absolutely thrive!

Yesterday we met up with some friends (2 French guys from
our Florip hostel) and went to the Maracana to watch a football match. It was a brilliant night. From the really positive, friendly atmosphere in the stadium to the excitement of the game. Saying this the friendly atmosphere could be down to there being about 60,000 Flumenese fans and 10 (yes 10!) Atletico fans there. I'm told it's because it would have been a 12 hour bus ride each way on a Sunday night for the match but who knows!

A custom seems to be bringing a bag of flour with you to the stadium and then when the players some on,they're thrown like bombs through the air and onto the pitch. Ever wondered how much mess tens of thousands of bags of flour can make? The results being that everyone gets completely covered in flour, visibility goes to zero for about 10 mins and you have flour sitting in your lungs for a couple of days!

We should arrive at our hotel (yes you heard me right-hotel) at about 10pm then up again at 5am for our flight so in that time I need to use all the complimentary toiletries and blow dry my hair, just because it'll be Christmas Eve before I see another hotel (or a beloved hairdryer).

See you in Bogota
Mx



-- Posted from Miranda's iPhone

5 comments:

Mark said...

Hello both. Glad you had a good time in Rio. It has a reputation for its 2-class system, you'll see much worse no doubt before you come back! Get ready for a big drop in temperature at Bogota, around 18c instead of the 35c you've enjoyed in Rio. Still....we'd be happy with 18c here right now. Take care both of you and keep your wits about you in Bogota! Dad

Marian said...

New photos great. Take care in Bogota (actually take care everywhere!). Note for Miranda. The cousin has gone back to Ireland (Pete had to come over for her today Gerry Honan drove him over).
Lots of love Mum & Dad

Noodle said...

Whats the Diabetico thingy for on your pictures? Probably means something entirely unrelated to diabetes...but caught my eye! x Noodle x

Mum and Rob said...

Fabulous pics of Rio.Back to life of luxury we see, hotel instead of hostel.Glad you are enjoying life.Take care Love Mum X and Rob

Miranda said...

Hmmm... Not sure Noodle-Poodle, I assumed like you it must have been national Brazilian Diabeties Week or similar so hence the photo.

Thanks for everyone's comments.

Miranda x