At least I have an original start to my conclusive Brazil blog. Up until now it seems like every country I visited was one I had dreamt about going to for years (except maybe Uruguay- no offence, I love it now). I actually had no intention of going to Brazil at all on this trip and was even cynical when Monika suggested it halfway through the trip. But one woman changed it all and flipped my adventure on its heels- my momma. My mother was given a collection of postcards of Rio when she was a little girl and used to stare at them and daydream about one day going to this amazing place. I demanded at the beginning of the trip that she travel the Atlantic to come see me. I mean LatAm is only about 15+ hours from Europe, if she really loved me…(my emotional blackmail was mainly focused on the fact she didn’t visit when I lived in Russia or Mexico- but before you go judging me on what a demanding, awful daughter I am, it was in her best interest- she deserved a break). Anyway, I thought she would pick Argentina, but deep down she knew it would be Brazil and all it took was a little mild persuasion from my aunty and the rest is history 🙂
For those of you that know my mother, you may, like I was, be a little surprised at my mother’s South American country of choice. For those of you that don’t know my mother, she is a little shy, a little conservative, and the kindest, politest woman I know (Jelena and I clearly take after my father in some aspects). Rio on the other hand is a city that was described by one travel writer as “a place where everyone looks like they have either just had sex or is just about to”. He pretty much hit the nail on the head. (Disclaimer: before you all get excited, this phrase is referring purely to locals). A week before my mother’s arrival in Rio, I enquired as to whether she had packed her thong for the beach. She was of course horrified by the thought and explained she had packed a one-piece. Yes, a one-piece to Brazil. I told her it was a ridiculous idea and it was probably going to get confiscated at Brazilian customs as they probably have never even seen a one-piece before. Luckily a last minute trip to Primark sorted her out with a bikini sexy enough to be allowed into the country (despite my insistence she didn’t buy a thong) and I was right, not only would she have been the only person on the beach with a one-piece , but even with her bikini, she was actually one of the only ladies on the beach with a covered bottom.
Anyway, back to Brazil…as you can probably tell from the previous blogs, we had an incredible time in Brazil and fell in love completely with the country, especially Rio. What a wonderful city! But I try to address serious issues in these conclusive blogs and like the rest of South America, Brazil has its problems too.
In comparison to many of is neighbours, Brazil has an extremely solid economy. It overtook the UK in 2012 as the 6th largest economy in the world and São Paolo is even expected by 2020 to be the 13th richest city in the world. Nonetheless, despite continuing economic growth, Brazil has not managed to avoid the curse many fellow developing countries face and it still has one of the largest income gaps between rich and poor in the world. Déjà vu? Yes it is. Mass urban migration in the 19th century lead to millions living in favelas all around the cities. We’ve heard/seen it all before and it’s almost cliché to write about it, especially considering how much I go on about this problem in México, but it is a very serious issue. As in México, many of these favelas lack access to clean water, sewage and healthcare. And the irony of it all is that just like in México, some of the richest people in the world live a stone’s throw away.
However, Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff is not one to shy away from these issues. She was helped by the fact that about 20% of the population jumped classes during the period of strong economic growth, leading to everybody’s favourite; a stronger middle class. But crime, poverty and lack of quality education still remain, as well as serious corruption, against which Rousseff has been battling. She has forced various members of parliament to “resign” and brought to the surface one of the largest corruption scandals in the history of Brazil. Now before you go imagining some fragile, beach babe I should mention she’s an ex Marxist guerilla. Nuff said.
And Brazil has also started tackling another one of its major issues: drug violence in the favelas. The favela pacification program has been implemented in over 230 favelas (yes, there are that many). Pacifying Police Units are basically squadrons of trained policemen who install themselves in a favela as a permanent police force, forcing out the drug lords and related violence. There are mixed opinions on the efficiency of this system, as much of the crime has simply migrated to other less policed areas of Rio, but many believe the crackdown has seen a good decline in violence and at least if it’s not concentrated it’s easier to tackle.
But there is one thing that I think makes it very different to México: the intermingling of classes. On the beach, at the bars and all throughout carnaval, everyone parties together without a care in the world. Brazilians love to party 🙂 And the most wonderful thing about Rio is everyone is super friendly. Friendliness and kindness is the norm and expected from everyone. No one judges you or gives you dirty looks. Walking through the streets you feel so comfortable and happy to be there. At least that is how we felt, and there is not many places I can say that about.
So you can imagine how sad I was to leave. As if leaving this amazing place wasn’t enough, suddenly I was leaving Ceca and Monika as well and I was all by myself again. The trip to Bogotá was a depressing one to say the least. I also made the awful decision to watch “Twelve years a slave” which I think is a wonderful film, but caused me to cry my eyes out for pretty much 2 hours 13 minutes of the 2 hours 14 minutes of the film’s duration. The worst thing was that all I wanted to do was wail and let it all out in order to feel better but I was sitting right smack bang in the middle of two relatively young and handsome guys so I was really embarrassed and tried to hide my crying throughout the whole trip. This resulted in a really awkward kind of silent crying with tears constantly rolling down my face and the odd sob uncontrollably escaping me. It wasn’t a pretty sight. One of the guys even told me in the queue for migration that he had spent most of the flight feeling worried/awkward, wondering whether to offer me a tissue.
But I survived and after a couple of days in rainy and cold Bogotá I had to fly unexpectedly to London for Stelios’ emergency surgery. The Colombia trip was postponed to June. Luckily Stelios’ operation went very well and soon enough I was back on the road. My next stop was back to my most beautiful and favouritist country of all, the place where it all started; México 🙂
Highlights
Everything about Rio! Every day spent there with my momma and Ceca
Carnaval!!!
Iguaçu’s beautiful waterfalls
The beaches of Ilha Grande
Going to miss
The amazing people
The delicious fresh fruit juices on every corner
The taxi drivers- they are the nicest, friendliest taxi drivers in the world
The eye candy- there are really beautiful people everywhere
The freedom- to wear whatever you want and feel comfortable
Not going to miss
The prices- beaten only I think by Uruguay
That’s it! And even the prices don’t really bother me that much because it’s worth it. At carnaval the prices go up loads but even then it’s worth it!
Carnaval flatmates
Bye Alex
Bye Brazil!