Theft and danger in Rio

The first thing people said to me when I told them I was going to Rio was to watch out for theft. Now I'm not sure if I just got lucky or I put myself in less dangerous situations, but I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I didn't notice any difference between Rio and any other town. Now I have to say I was a little more conscientious of my surroundings, and it might've been safer considering there were always so many people around, but I thought the only real risk was being pick pocketed.

There was one night when 2 guys I met up with said they had both been pick pocketed that night, but there stories sounded like it was completely avoidable. One of them said that he felt some guys pushing against him with some force, and he even said that he was wondering what was wrong with them, but then he said he didn't notice his phone was gone for a few minutes. I consistently check my pockets every time someone did so much as touch me, which is something I do whenever I'm going through crowds. I've also never been pick pocketed (knock on wood).

Another thing to note is that I saw no violence and no fights. Everyone was always happy and jolly, parting for carnaval. I couldn't believe that Rio was conveyed as such a dark city before. Now it might've been different in years past, but from my experience now I'd say Rio De Janeiro is pretty safe.

I even went out alone late at night to get some food a couple times, like 3-5am, and didn't feel scared at all. There were only a few people around, but none of them tried anything or seemed threatening on my 10 minute walk through Copacabana to the 24 hour restaurant. Of course if I was a girl I might not've done that alone, but it's not like you have to avoid the streets after a certain hour.

 

South America Traffic

So much fun! I love taxi rides, you never know when you'll get that party taxi. Bus rides not as great, but still fun. The cops all around South America are also pretty awesome. They don't care at all about traffic violations and drinking, which means that they probably won't bother me. And it also means they're probably spending time on more important things, like possible violence.

I was in taxis that blew past cops at speeds I thought could easily be above the speed limit, as well as blowing through red lights as they passed cops who also ran the lights. Speaking of the red lights, people use such good common sense with them. During the day and peak hours, people follow them. During the night when no one is around they go through them full speed if they can see who's coming. And if it's a blind corner they slow down and almost stop sometimes, but if no one's coming they go through. It makes complete sense, and it's annoying that I can't do that in the states. Yeah yeah so maybe they have a few more accidents, but I wonder how much of them are really due to someone running a red light and slamming into cross traffic. I haven't checked hah.

When I was in Buenos Aires, I was surprised at the amount of efficiency on the main streets. Those lights were timed so perfectly that it felt like we drove for miles without stopping when there was a light every city block. At one point my cab was on the end running yellow and red lights, but he sped up a little to catch up with the timing.

Buses in Rio are quite an adventure. First off, there are HUNDREDS of bus lines. I don't know how anyone could understand them all. Even with other Brazilian locals who lived in Rio their entire life they were asking the bus drivers if they went to a certain place. This absurd amount of bus lines means you can get everywhere if you know how, but I can't really use the website that tells you what to take because it's in portuguese and unfortunately google maps isn't hooked into their transit system. This also means that there are so many buses everywhere flying through the city. The bus drivers mean business, and they're not slowing down for anything. They slam on the accelerator and then slam on the brake when some other car cuts in front of them. It's like a roller coaster ride, and it's especially exciting when you just get on and you're still trying to pay for the bus while being rocked around. If the transmission is bad on the bus it can be even worse. Every bus also has a turnstyle so no one can jump it. It only releases once you pay, and it's quite a tight fit. If it's a tight fit for me, then I can't imagine what it's like for anyone who's at all overweight. What about the pregnant women!

 

CARNAVAL in Rio

Carnaval in Rio is definitely a crazy time. I was in town about a week before the major festivities began, so it was interesting to see the city come to life. During the busy days of carnaval, which is mostly Saturday to Tuesday, there were street parties with literally millions of people out on the streets. Sometimes they were so crowded you could be winding through a crowd for as far as the eye could see, it was ridiculous. Some of them were in a single area, some of them moved with some kind of parade or show. Some had music, and some were simple street parties where everyone just hung out.

Transportation was also crazy with so many people everywhere. With everything so far away I would take taxis, the metro, or the bus to get around. Taxis needed to watch out where they went, since they could easily be stuck on a blocked road. There were also never enough of them! If you were near a bloco, it was hard to find an empty taxi, and sometimes they would be on call or something so wouldn't pick you up anyway! The metro was super crowded, but ran fine. The only problem was the queues to refill your prepaid metro card were 30+ minutes long, so if you didn't have any money on your card it could be a huge pain. Buses were epic, since all the Brazilians seem to know the same songs and drunkenly sing at the top of their lungs and bang on the windows and walls in unison. Drinking on all these types of transportation is permitted and no authority figure ever tried to calm the party, so there's no stop to the drunken debauchery.

Many of the parties also consisted of everyone being half naked. With the beach sometimes nearby and the hot summer of rio, it was all too tempting for everyone. I gladly took part.

There wasn't just one party at a time, they were everywhere all over the city, and Rio is definitely not small. Some would be more popular than others, but you had so many options to choose from! It usually didn't take long to find one wherever you were. They did have brochures and information on where all the parties were and when they started if you wanted to know. This pic is just a small section. The 18th is when the fun really began, so that one went on for a few more columns.

After a street party, it would be a disaster area, but cleaners would clean everything up soon after. This made littering a normal occurrence. Done with your beer/cup/napkin/whatever? Drop it. No extra trash bins were provided so everything would just end up on the ground anyway once they started to overflow haha. Rio doesn't have the same campaigns as Texas apparently :p

Street parties were definitely my favorite part of carnaval, since they're big, fun, and free. There are many other events that I hear are pretty nice, but can get expensive, and I'd already been spending plenty. Tickets to the sambadrome to watch the parade and balls (which I think are just indoor smaller, classier parties?) were some things I didn't do.

One thing I did spend on was a costume to be in a samba school parade. Why watch when you can be a performer I thought. I spent what seemed like way too much money to order a costume back in December, since they were already starting to sell out then. They said I could pick it up when I got there. I should've picked up my costume before carnaval really started, but that slipped my mind so I ended up going to get it on the first craziest day, oops! After weaving through the crowds of the bloco on the street where I was picking up my costume, I finally got to the place and ended up in a waiting room while they fetched my costume. While waiting, I found some epic looking wings and started to play around with them.

Then when my costume finally arrived, the lady started to fit it on me while I continued to drink.

Then suddenly, she turns around, picks up the wings, and hooks them into the back of my costume. Holy shit those were my wings!?

Once it was made sure everything fit, we took the bus home to Copacabana to regroup with our costumes and then head over to meet up with the rest of the samba school.

In that picture the bus wasn't that crowded, but before we knew it there were tons of Brazilians singing and banging, and I had no idea how I was going to get those wings off the bus in the middle of Copacabana. When the time came, we all just got up and I slowly squeezed my way through the crowd with my massive wings as they chanted "gringo" at the top of their lungs haha.
Once home, I put on the costume in full force.

I don't have any pics from the parade since I didn't bring my camera, but I was with a friend who will probably post some soon so I can see a few. It was a great experience, but the costume was super uncomfortable and there was lots of waiting and hanging around with the other paraders before actually dancing (which was actually just doing whatever you wanted, it was completely unorganized, just fun) and pretending to sing (since I didn't have time to actually learn the samba song I was supposed to know lol) during the 1 hour parade through the sambadrome. It made me want to go back and actually watch an entire parade go by, since I only saw my own group of costumes, but I was having way too much fun at the blocos to take a break and watch samba for an entire evening.

Another fun activity I did was a favela party. A favela is a slum area where the poor people just start building, usually on the side of a mountain or some sort of land where the government usually won't care to take it back. By now some of the favelas have become so big they're more official anyway, but they don't start that way. One of the favelas has a little bar on the top where tourists like me can apparently go up and party. I didn't know what I was getting into as I went there with others from my hostel, but once at the bottom of the favela you have to take little mototaxis(just a motorcycle that you can ride on the back of) or a bus(vw 80s van) up to the top, unless you want to walk 20-30 minutes up a very steep road. I opted for the mototaxi, since it was so much fun! Once we got up there it was a great view of the Ipanema beach and mountains of Rio. We ended up staying until sunrise and got some great views.

I`m in Brasil

I have finally made it to Brasil, and it`s a blast. Carnaval is in full swing and the streets are full of parties everywhere around the city. I was here for a few days before the rush of parties though.

The first things I noticed when coming from Peru:

• Establishments accept credit cards! In Peru I think I used my credit card once...maybe twice, and it was super slow. Here in Brasil it`s still not as fast as in the states but it`s fairly common.
• The internet is faster! I think the lines into Peru were just much slower, since it`s just easier to browse over here, and my photos are actually uploaded at a decent speed.
• The intercity buses are big again! In Peru many of the buses were just glorified minibuses that were about as big as a vw camper van but rigged up to have lots of seats and poles to hold onto.

It`s hot here, the beaches are huge and beautiful, the waves are quite strong actually. I already got wrecked by a wave when body surfing and it took away my sunglasses and gave me a nice burn on my knee!

I`ve also partook in the samba festivities and paraded through the sambadrome in full costume in front of thousands of people. Much fun was had.

Time to go out and party on the street some more, carnaval isn`t over yet!