Rio de Janeiro and the Great Divide

March, 2014

It is time for my latest ramblings.

I was very lucky this month because thanks to spring break, my family was able to visit me. The Samad ladies ( we missed you papeets!) flew into the famous Rio de Janeiro!

As soon as I got off the plane I could tell that Rio was going to be VERY different from Floripa and the more I explored, the more differences I saw. First of all, Rio is a very large and busy city, it is extremely lively but also has stunning beaches, huge mountains and green forests all within the same area- basically it is a quadruple threat. I found this amazing because you can really have it all, if you want to hike, done. If you want to flash a little buttox at the beach you just hit up the Copacabana- no bigz no smallz.

Over the weekend we saw all of the major sights such as sugar loaf mountain - aka Pao de acucar, the botanical gardens and the famous Christ statue ( where we obviously acted like the biggest tourists and did the classic open armed pose). I've really learnt to embrace my inner tourist since I've been here, my fanny pack has never looked better and I've already mastered the peace sign pose. Anyways, both of these lookouts were absolutely stunning as we were able to overlook the whole city from above. So much blue water, with little green islands receding into the distance- it was really an incredible sight.

Later that night we hit up Lapa which is the equivalent to the route 1 of College Park, or the "strip" of Vegas- aka where the parties at. I introduced the family to the Brazilian drink "caipirinha" and needless to say my mom showed us all down and got white mom wasted (proud of you mom!) She keeps me young. The area was really cool with tons of live music, dancing and lively people, we came, we saw, we carried mom home.

I am learning in my Sustainable and Economic Development class, that there is a huge divide between the people in Brazil. There are extremes of total wealth and then less then 5 kilometers away you can hit areas of extreme poverty. Brazil has been through a very big transformation over the years and has developed in many ways but there is still a massive divide. Something that really stood out to me in Rio was the vast amount of favelas in the area. The favelas in Brazil are commonly defined as slum areas and are generally not a safe place to be due to the corruption and drug cartels. You would never casually rock up to a favela, it's a no go. There are many favelas in Floripa but Floripa is a safer area and is nothing compared to Rio. Because I am studying Global Poverty at UMD I am very intrigued by the favelas, how they function and what the living conditions are like in these areas. We passed through a favela in Rio and there was a stark difference between the central city and the favelas that are only 10 minutes away. This is definitely something I hope to learn more about during my time here.

Ate logo meu amigos. Sending love from the south.