6am musings after a night dodging mosquitoes

I have noticed that when I travel, emotions are closer to the surface. So for example when I have trouble using a bank card, even though I have several backups that are functional, I panic and worry and am depressed all day until I solve the problem. Or when I watch the sunset, I find myself tearing up.

This is absurd because Los Angeles has spectacular sunsets that don't make me cry and I regularly face setbacks worse than a disfunctional debit card. I used to think there were certain places that affected me more strongly, namely, Paris. But now I'm beginning to think it's the effect of travel.

When we are at home, the majority of our energy and self goes to our jobs, school, personal relationships. So even when we pause to look at a pretty sunset, our focus is really elsewhere. I don't think this is bad; if anything it's probably necessary. Living life takes energy, thought, planning. There isn't much left over to examine the world closely.

But when one has saved up to travel, one has the luxury to let the world sink in. My fulltime job right now is to examine the world and the people living on it.

I also used to see travel as somewhat selfish, in that it meant I was enjoying myself instead if working hard at a job or education that would get me a job. But in fact when I am at home, when I am working or in school, I am occupied most the time with myself. My job, my money, my plans for the weekend, my boyfriend, my workout. When I travel, it's about the place. I am still the protagonist, but the "work" I do is to discover a place. How do I get to this part of Rio? What is the history of this city? What do people eat here? What is the economy like? How do I say "thank you"? 

Rio will be the same when I leave, but I will not be the same when I leave Rio.

Rio Tour: Considering Chickens

A few quick notes from a tour I took the other day.

The tour started in a national park (the largest national park inside a city on earth). The park is an Atlantic rainforest, which means the soil quality is higher than in a tropical rainforest. The trees are shorter in the Atlantic rainforest but there is still a high level of biodiversity. We then drove to Christ the Redeemer for views over rio. Unsurprisingly , the area around the statue was very touristy but the views were more the worth the crowds. 

We drove back down into the city into a neighborhood called Santa Teresa. We had lunch and then saw the Escalera de Selarón. A quick note on lunch - all the beef I have had so far in Rio is insanely good. Even hole-in-the-wall burger joints have fantastic beef. I ordered steak for lunch and was not disappointed.

After taking a few photos of the steps, we drove to sugarloaf mountain in time for sunset.

I spent most the day with a Scottish woman, British woman, and a French woman who know lives in Cape Town and speaks English with a cool hybrid French / South African language. She told me that Cape Town has a respectable film making industry. Apparently the American film industry uses the South African production capabilities from time to time, for a much lower price than they might pay in Los Angeles for the same service. (Mad Max was filmed in Namibia and some of the production work was done in Cape Town.)

Throughout the day I discussed socioeconomic concerns with the tour guide. He was born in a favela. He taught himself Spanish and English and is now quite highly educated from what I can tell (the tour covered a broad range of topics, from ocean and rainforest biology to history, art and current events in Brazil). He said that there is basically no way out of the favelas. There is no primary education for the children of the favelas. There IS public education in Brazil but the entrance exams are prohibitively difficult for those born into poverty. The private schools have easier entrance exams but are expensive. He said some folks in the favelas have been given iPhones (?? Not sure from whom) and get a small amount of money from the government each month and are thus content with their situation and don't try to get educated.

He drew a parallel between chickens in the marketplace and people in the favelas. He said that the chickens are not locked in cages, but they don't leave their owners because they are provided with easy access to food. The chickens are unaware that they will be slaughtered and sold. The tour guide said the people in the favelas are like these chickens, except that people are theoretically capable of logical reasoning while chickens are not.

I'm not going to say whether I agree with his viewpoints or not but I think it's valuable to write down his thoughts. My tour guide is certainly one in a bajillion - one of the very few born into a favela who end up with a lower middle class life.

This is a subject for another post but I haven't seen much evidence of a middle class here. 

First Day in Rio (late post)

June 5

I landed in rio around 8:30 this morning. I made a MAJOR rookie mistake and forgot to bring USD. I had zero cash. What a noob. Luckily there were plenty of atms in the airport. I've also noticed that most businesses here seem to prefer credit to cash, which is unexpected (though awesome). Maybe that's only true in tourist areas, however.

I took a bus from the airport to Copacabana. In the hour long ride, I saw more examples of extreme poverty than I have ever seen in one place (and I'm from LA). I actually don't think we drove by the favelas but I will confirm that when I know more. (Confirmed - favelas are in a different part of the city up on hillsides). We drove by miles and miles of crumbling mid-size high rises. Laundry lines, rudimentary water tanks and various vehicles indicated that the no doubt unsafe buildings are inhabited. One interesting observation - some of the trucks and cars parked in front of the decrepit apartment complexes looked somewhat new and appeared to be in decent condition. Made me wonder if they belonged to folks who don't live in the run-down buildings ...? Or maybe rio has a major housing problem but cars are relatively cheap? I'm speculating off a Jetlagged bus ride so take this with a shaker full of salt.

I checked in to my hostel and then took a nap on the beach. Vendors moved about, selling water, beer, hammocks, hats, sunglasses, and shrimp kebabs. Men and women of all body types wore fairly revealing swimsuits. It was kinda cool actually - there doesn't appear to be as much body shaming in Rio as in LA. 

I'm back at my hostel now meeting other travelers.  A group of us are going to a street party later tonight. I asked if there was a dress code and the dude at the front desk laughed at me. Apparently you can party in Rio in flip flops. Good to know!

P.S. FOUND A CLIMBING GYM GOING ASAP