Last night was the illuminate yaletown show happening on mainland and hamilton. It was kinda cool. Lots of people out, some neat light shows, some lame ones, some ice sculptures. Mostly just nice to walk around. I took a few photos at the event, the better ones are up on flickr here.

Title: Favela da Rocinha Trash
Author: Scott Hadfield
Taken: 22 Jan 2009 - 4:20pm
There is no trash cleanup in Rio's favelas, all of the trash is eventually sorted through by local "dumpster divers" who need w...

Brazil is quite a poor country, and in Rio it's easy to get into trouble if you don't keep aware of your surroundings. We had few problems ourselves and even took a tour of a local Favela. Favela's are basically illegal neighbourhoods with no authorized electricity, plumbing, or phones, yet a majority of the population lives.

While the city was younger with fewer people, the government decided to turn all of the mountain sides into official parks, so that no one could build there. The mountains were to be used for everyone's enjoyment, not just the rich. With little land nestled between the steep mountains I imagine the city quickly ran out of affordable places for middle and lower class people to live. So they started building up the mountain sides into the park land.

I took a bit of time off during the last two weeks of my South American trip to visit Rio with Sam. The photos from that trip are now up on flickr.

Title: View from Sugar Loaf
Author: Scott Hadfield
Taken: 28 Jan 2009 - 3:58pm

To be perfectly honest, I don't think either of us will call Rio a highlight of the trip. When we arrived the hostel was a bit dodgy (as you'd probably expect in South America, but it wasn't cheap either.. about $80CAD/night). With no air conditioning in 35+ degree heat and high humidity... it was a bit too much for either of us to handle. We moved to a hotel after a few days and then to an apartment for the final week. Well worth the hassle to get some A/C.

I was walking down Robson street last night (near Granville) and was accosted by one of the many people who try and give you crap in Vancouver. This time it turned out to be Doritos, so I was pumped :).

Apparently they're doing a promotional contest for a new flavour of chips. It must have been a "sneak peak" as their website claims it won't be out until Feb 16. They want a name and a 30 second ad and I guess have a chance to win 25K + 1% of the net sales.

Title: Doritos unidentified flavour
Author: Scott Hadfield
Taken: 13 Feb 2009 - 8:00pm
Doritos unidentified flavour. Given to my by an unidentified person on Robson st at Granville in Vancouver.

Among the more interesting ingredients there's cheddar, blue, monterey jack, colby, and swiss cheeses, tomato powder, garlic powder, and sour cream powder. They're also spicy... in the chemically typical not too much taste, type of spicy. They taste quite similar to their spicy buffalo / blue cheese bags of chips, but with both flavours in a single mix.

I think in honour of valentine's day I'll suggest "nacho crush".

Title: Boy and his dog
Author: Scott Hadfield
Taken: 8 Jan 2009 - 8:12pm

After yesterday's post and my other very brief post on the trip, I thought it might be worthwhile to write something a little more in depth about our trip to Machu Picchu.

As I've mentioned previously, the primary way of getting into Machu Picchu takes you through Cusco and Aguas Calientes. Our flight from Buenos Aires had a short connection in Lima, Peru's capital. From the air Lima looked quite dirty and run down. Though it's a coastal city (bordering the pacific), it's also a desert city as the Sechura desert basically spans the entire coastline of Peru. We talked to a few other people who visited the city and it does sound like it has some nice areas that would be worth spending some time in.