rio de janeiro

Among other things, Rio is a great place for eating. If I needed a reason to go back it would be the food. Almost without exception, all the meals/snacks/drinks I had there were delicious. On every other corner there was a juice bar serving juices of pretty much any fruit you could imagine... the juice was made to order from fresh fruits. My two personal favorites were watermelon and açai (prounounced ass-eye-EEE).

Acai is a small berry, similar to a blueberry but denser, that grows on acai palm trees. I believe they keep the berries frozen and then blend them when you order. It's not so much of a juice as it is a delicious purple-y fruit slushy. The berries have recently become popular in North America for their anti-oxidant and supposed weight loss properties. Sam and I had never heard of the stuff before we got to Rio, but we had one each just about every day. So delicious.

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.

Just thought I'd post a quick update on my trip. Been a pretty eventful couple of weeks, both work and travel-wise, so I've had no time to sift through my photos from Machu Picchu or blog at all.

Sam and I are now in Rio de Janeiro. We arrived Saturday night after 16h of travel (we bussed from Sao Paulo to Rio which was about 6h). It was a little sad checking out of the apartment we'd been living in for the last 2.5 months in Buenos Aires. We'll be here until the end of January before returning to our respective homes on the opposite side of the planet.

The hostel we booked had no air conditioning, and since we got here Rio has been about 35 degrees and up with some insane humidity. We needed to find something with A/C today so we moved from the hostel into a hotel for a few days before booking into an apartment this weekend.

Title: Bikini girls on Ipanema Beach
Author: Samantha Marx
Taken: 18 Jan 2009 - 4:17pm
Not an uncommon sight on these beaches.