Rio's Favelas

Hi there,
It has been a while again, hope you all are well. Since our last blog from Rio de Janiero, we have visited Natan in Ouro Preto, a beautiful organic coffee farm in the state of Sao Paulo, and Iguazu falls. We have also driven through Paraguay (spent some time in Asuncion), returned to Argentina and are currently trying to work our way down to say hi to the penguinos in Ushuaia, the most southern inhabited city in the world.


Seeing Natan was fun and those who know him, know that he has a lot going for him. Great heart, brains, and a handsome, tall Brazilian body:) . The coffee farm experience was probably the most enriching for me, personally. I won’t bore you with details, Todd will do that, but learning about the history of coffee plantations, its people, their hardships, the devastating impact of fertilizers and pesticides on coffee plants and farmers, as well as the change over to natural and organic farming was amazing. We had spent several days on Renata’s and Joao’s farm, listening to their philosophy of life and farming, drinking good Argentine wine and eating food produced by the farm. Anyway, you know how it is when you meet someone whose presence touches you so deeply that something inside of you changes for the better? Well that’s how it was for me when I met Renata and Joao, the guru of growing natural coffee (in the Brazilian coffee community).


Iguassu falls are way beyond description. They are so big and beautiful that one literarily needs to turn around 360 degrees to see it all. The pictures do not do it justice but check them out, we have also included a short video so you can hear how loud the water is.

Just a few words about Paraguay and then I will talk a little bit about Rio’s favelas just like I promised. Paraguay, hmm, very, very nice people, very cheap food ( they would not let me buy a loaf of bread in the grocery store I had to buy 3 because one does not cost anything!!!), and very, very hot and humid. However, it seemed to me that the difficult past times marked by wars and dictatorships were lingering in the air along with heavy smog.
What I found the most fascinating about Paraguay was learning about its women. In the Triple Alliance war, in which the “little puppy” Paraguay started a war against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, the country lost 3/4ths of its population. This war left Paraguay with around 200,000 people ( 3/ 4 of the population died, 2/3 in the war and 1/3 due to illnesses related to war) from which only 20,000 were adult men!!! So the women of Paraguay shared the men (resigned themselves to a polygamous society) in order to rebuild the country while the Catholic church (kind of sort of) looked the other way. WOOW!!!! ( the women had to do this one more time in the Chaco war in 1932!)

Ok Rio De Janeiro‘s favelas.
As you all know, Rio has this reputation for being very, very dangerous. So we set ourselves out to learn why. The next few paragraphs are very subjective and based only on my observations. It is not my intention to impose any personal opinions here I just want to describe it as I understood it. ( Does it sounds like a school paper? I must be missing school:).

Ok there are about 900 something favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Favelas are illegally built houses on the hills of big cities, by people who came mostly from the northern part of the Brazil to search for a better life in the city after they were either freed from slavery, or laid off from farms due to lack of work. We were told that the first “ faveleros” were promised housing by the government for their participation in the army. When the government did not fulfill their promise after the war, they were left with no option but to build their own houses in the hills of Rio.

So, this is how a favela gets built: 1, your friend or family member either gives you or sells you their roof ( its always flat). 2, you build your house on their roof with, of course, the help of the whole community. 3, you sell your roof and with the money you buy simple furniture and if you have some money leftover, you paint the bricks. We visited one called the Empire State Building which was13 stories high.

The 900 favelas in Rio differ in size. The biggest favela has about 200,000 people and the total population of favelas are still growing ( about 1 mil inhabitants total) as people continue to move in. There are three gangs in Rio de Janeiro that have control or rule these favelas ( 400 favelas belong to 1 gang and the remaining 500 are divided in between the other two gangs). Some of the favelas are free of the drug trade and the gangs have no interest in them. This is mostly due to having only one entrance to get inside the favela, which would make it very easy for the police to track the drug dealers down.

The gang hierarchy is as follows from the top to the bottom: *the (drug) Lord, *2 managers one for marijuana one for cocaine. We were told that the Lord is “looking out” for his costumers as he believes that from other drugs, such as crack, or heroin, his customers die faster. Therefore, only marijuana and cocaine are available. There are *15 soldiers ( guys with guns) for each manager, *the drug sellers hang out by the entrances of favelas. Each seller hires *kids to watch for the police.
The Lord gives the orders that are strict and simple, which basically means no crime inside the favelas ( no stealing, no assaults, no rapes, etc..) He does not want the police to come to favelas so ironically life in favelas is safer than outside the favelas. The Lord is seen as a “good guy” by faveleros since he provides protection and services for the community. People go to him with a variety of requests. He often tries to help them, gives them money for medicine, housing, protects them, keeps their neighborhood ‘s safe, and resolves any disputes. The Lord and managers throw huge parties for the favela’s residents and provide food and drinks.

So far so good, hm? But the danger comes when the gang fights over the drug territory. However, interestingly enough the inhabitants of the favelas are warned ahead of time about the upcoming fight and either stay home or leave until the fight is over. They do not notify police as they do not have much trust in them. Often due to their experience with the police coming to the favelas and shooting innocent people. A common misunderstanding is that everybody in the Favela is a “bad guy, while in fact only 1% of Faveleros are involved in the drug business, the other 99% have regular paying jobs. That happened a week before we came to Rio. The gangs were fighting over their territory, and the police wanted to gain control over the fight . The gang fights are the only occasion/ reason that police come to the favelas and during that attempt a helicopter was shot down.

The upper and the middle class never go to any favela unless they want to buy drugs ( only to the entrance and never up the hill ). However 99% of Faveleros go down to the city to work everyday. During the carnival Faveleros throw parties and the middle and the upper class watch the show. No integration of children in schools. Favelas kids go to favela’s schools. Recently, the biggest contradiction has been caused by the governments decision to build brick walls around the favelas. The favelas constant growing population is a concern for the government as well as the cutting the trees from forest to build their houses. However, this policy would create an even bigger gap between poor and rich.

The other attempt of the government was to build an alternative housing project called “ The City of God” and force the favela’s residents to leave their homes and move outside the city. It only worked with one favela though. The rest of the time the Favela’s residents moved right back, since they could not afford going to and from work due to expensive bus fares. The government is constantly trying to help the favela’s residents to improve their difficult living conditions and is setting up new street names so the residents can have a post address, setting electricity, water run off channels, building
schools, and medical centers. However, the government can only work in 40 favelas at a time. The completion time takes several years.

It was my experience when visiting the favelas, that people were very friendly, sticking together, trying to make the best of their lives, and looking happy and smiling. I am sure that they have their own crosses of huge social stigmas to bear and that the situation is very complex. However, I know for sure that from those hills, they are “looking down” on all of the rich peoples homes while having the best view of that beautiful city.

PS: a short note for people in the psychology business. I have became so obsessed with the idea of meeting the “LORD” of one of the most powerful gangs in Rio. I have heard that he is about 30 years old, and he has to move to a different location every 3 days ( we have something in commonJ ). Not many people have seen him as he has to constantly hide. I imagined all sorts of scenarios of how can I possibly get an interview with him. I would love to assess him. I was thinking a short narrative interview to hear his story, an IQ test, MMPI, and maybe Rorschach. Or I would just love to listen to what he has to say. Or, holy cow, what if I could be his therapist!!!!
Ok that’s enough for now,
Love,
Kristina

Rio the Beautiful

Hi all,
It has been a while since our last blog. Just a quick few sentences about what had happened since we wrote last time and then I will write about Rio de Janeiro.

Last time I mentioned that our motorcycle was making funny noises and Todd was looking for a tool to get it fixed. We ended up stopping at the local repair shop and the three guys running it let us use all their tools. They were so nice and if we were missing a tool one of them would jump on his scooter, ride to the other repair shop and get it for us. It took us about 4 hours to adjust the valves, only to find out as we were driving away that the popping noise did not stop. Couple days later we were lucky and were able to buy the tool and so we adjusted them again, but the popping did not stop. We ended up going to the BMW dealer in Rio and they told us that the popping is caused by Brazilian gas that contains 30 % of pure sugar alcohol. My conclusion is that we all would make funny noises if our food intake contained 30 % of pure alcohol.

As far as Brazil goes it is really a beautiful country. Everyone I have met before I came to Brazil had always described it a paradise. People had their eyes closed, held their hand on their heart while they were speaking about the beaches, rain forest, food and people. So far that has been our experience.

The Road to Rio was probably the most spectacular I have ever seen, with the ocean on the right and the rain forest on the left. With each turn we took the view got even more gorgeous which one may have thought was not even possible. One day there were even 2000 turns.

Todd was very particular about taking the “right” road to enter Rio. This south road was supposed to give us the most spectacular view of the city. I was pretty happy to take just about any road that gets us to the hotel as quickly as possible so I can eat all the mangoes, bananas and papayas I picked from the trees. The news about the gangs shooting down the helicopter, the guide book telling that one wrong turn means getting robbed, kidnapped, and who knows what did not help either. However, our experience was very different than what the guide books had planned for us and we experienced nothing but the beauty, joyful energy and the enormous richness of the city.

I am not even sure how and where to start to begin describing the city. When I went for a walk tons of people were jogging and walking along the beach, kind of like around Lake Harriet, except they all look like they knew each other. They also take breaks to buy huge coconuts and drink the milk with straws, talk loud and laugh a lot. Most of them constanlty dance to samba music which you can hear just about everywhere you go. It all felt very rich and diverse, there were groups of elderly exercising together in circles, cute guys playing soccer, a TV station making an interview with some soccer player, Christ the Redeemer above it all, hugging the city and so much more.

In Rio, you can spot some kind of soccer game 24 hours a day pretty much any direction you look. The TV-s with the game on are everywhere and seem to have a crowd of about 20 people (minimum and as the day progresses as many as 100) around them. People surround the TV and cheer constantly for “their“ team. It seems like soccer connects Brazilians very much ,everyone is welcome to stop by at the bar or restaurant without ordering anything just to watch the game. Another neat thing I noticed is that the love for their president Lula, also seemed to connect Brazilian people together . Almost everyone we met liked him and according to the statistics he has about 79-90% approval rate here.

What I found very interesting about Rio is that it is full of contradictions mainly due to the enormous economic class differences. However, in spite these enormous differences they not only manage to live literarily next to each other, but also appear to have lots of joy and happiness. (I will talk little more about the differences between rich and poor in our next post as I will describe the experience of visiting Favelas in Rio). Another cool thing about Brazil is that literally everything one buys in Brazil is made in Brazil. It is really amazing. That is the way they support their economy and possibly one of the main reasons why Brazil was not affected as much by the economic meltdown.

We had spent about 7 days in Rio visited most of the tourist places, visited favelas and concluded that Rio has something for everyone. It is so fertile with flavors, colors, sounds that I was not even able to imagine one city having it all. It is so hard to describe , you guys just have to come and taste acai, listen to the samba music and see the beautiful Copacabana beach.

Here is a little samba song for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD-UCbmjTs4

love,
Kristina

Pantano do Sul

Hello Everyone,
It took a while to get here but I think we have found paradise! From the border with Uruguay up Devils Inferno road onto BR 101 which will take us all the way to Rio. There were small ferries, large ferries and sometimes no ferries and we had to backtrack. Each time the scenery was spectacular.


From the moment we got onto 101 though we knew something was wrong. Every bridge that day (maybe 60) was gone, vanished. All being rebuilt simultaneously. So all of the traffic had to move down two levels than back up two levels, around the bridge construction, then back onto the main road. All while trying to maintain speed. Sometimes it seems that the posted speed limits are actually the minimums.
It was getting dark so we took a right to the Island of Santa Catarina. That was 6 days ago. We are in Pantano do Sul a small fishing village at the southernmost point of the island. As close to heaven as I think I have ever been. Jungle and beach merge with small houses here and there. Fisherman push their boats from shore into the Atlantic on greased boards. From our deck you can see canaries, parakeets, toucans, parrots and many other birds I can’t identify. Flowers are springing up after each rain, wild orchids, bird of paradise and cyclamen all common plants.


The main city is Florianopolis about 400,000 people and yes it is the city of flowers. Also being the cultural capital of southern Brazil there are many options, from organic markets, to street Capoeira performances(begun by African slaves as a means of self-defense it combines fight, game and dance in a very fluid circular movement) there are performances and practices all over.

So the island along with the beautiful city I just mentioned has over 42 pristine
Beaches all more or less used for surfing. They even do a little sand dune surfing here. The story we have read is about the Pororoca Evidently at the mouths of some rivers when tidal conditions are just right powerful waves can form that push up these rivers. The waves can be 4 meters high and travel at 30 kilometers per hour temporarily overpowering the seaward rush of the rivers waters. There are national championships each year and the record goes to a guy who rode one of these waves for 37 minutes covering 13 kilometers. Wow!

There are also many lakes within the island, some fresh water and some connected to the ocean. Surrounded by hiking trails there are plenty of options for things to do. Nights get pretty cold, (of course no heat in any of the places we stay) so we around the flashlights at night for warmth! Check out the photos for Pantano do Sul.



When you go into a restaurant/bar they serve for free unlimited shots of Cachaca. This is a pure distillation of sugar cane coming in at about 120 proof.
You can see from this photo of me what happens to one after a few of these shots.


On another topic they recently discovered a cave in northern Brazil filled with cave art dating back 50,000 years. That makes it the oldest inhabited site in the Americas. What did the cave art depict? Lots of hunting, eating, dancing, drinking and of course sex!



One last item. I did find the valve adjustment tool at the 49th store. Not bad, they even had curbside service.
Miss you all,
Todd

The Road to Brazil

Hi all,
Its Kristina. It is about 5 o’clock in the morning, the 11th of October, 2009. We have parked it in a wonderful little fishing village on a little island in Brazil because the road ended. Nothing but the ocean at the end of the road. The GPS does not work here so well anymore, and many times it showed us that there was road where it was not and other way around.

Sometimes we are able to take a ferry to the other side of the bay where the road continues, but not this time. We have decided to stay a couple days since the place is so mesmerizing. Just mountains and the ocean.

It is off season time in Brazil, there is no one except us, a few fishermen, and the best sea food buffet restaurant in the world. It is actually a very cool place called Arante that opened in 1958 by a women named Masmarina Maria Montero. She started cooking fried fish for fishermen that came into the bay. It eventually became a restaurant and in the 1970’s students and surfers started arriving. They began leaving little notes on the walls for friends to find them when they went camping into the mountains. Eventually this place became packed with these notes and the last estimate said that their were 70 000 of them. Here is the picture. There was also a book written about all the notes “ The notes of the world on Arantes walls” by Paolo Alves. There was a note in Czech I spotted as well.

Other then this restaurant not much going on in this town. Everyone goes to bed by 8:00 PM so we do as well, that’s why we are up by 3:15 AM.

The world really has changed since we got to Brazil. Uruguay was OK , beautiful in its own way, especially the coast road we took. Uruguay is 3/4 grassland and in the guidebooks they compared it to Switzerland (except I did not see any mountains). What I saw was , of course the back of Todd’s helmet in front of me, ocean on the right and thousands of cows, sheep, horses and birds (even flamingoes) around us (pretty cool!!!)

Now when it comes to Brazil, they are way more open to diversity. I first noticed it because they do not separate sheep, cows and horses by fences the way Argentineans and Uruguayans do. Brazilians just let them hang out together and be friends. The population is also way more mixed while in Argentina everyone seemed to be pretty much of European descent.

Another thing I noticed is that the language is soooooo different. After I got my Spanish going and was able to understand and communicate ( the beginnings were hard, I ordered a salad in the restaurant and I got a huge chunk of pork) by the time we left Uruguay. Portuguese first sounded like Spanish with a Russian accent to me, then more like French and now pretty much like nothing at all. Every time I am “talking” to someone I am trying to convince myself that it is very similar to Spanish, but holly cow it is not!

Another difference is that Brazilians are so friendly and they just keep talking to you, but we literarily do not understand a word they are saying. Then I say “no entiendo” and they don’t understand what I said because it is in Spanish so they just keep talking some more in Portuguese. I really forget how hard it is when one doesn’t speak the language. Other than that, even though I can’t understand a word I seem to be able to develop friendships with Silvios, Frederikos, Daniels, Eduardos, and Gustavos.

In Brazil food is spectacular, everything is so fresh and tastes great. Fruits, fish, home made pastries are all amazing. They have these “por kilo restaurants” which are usually huge rooms filled with sea food, fish stews, fruits, vegetables, deserts, cheeses, fruit juices(that I have never seen)and of course Brazilian coffee. You put anything you want on a plate and pay by its weight ( not how much you weigh after).

A few words about the culture:
I noticed the things that drive Todd crazy in south America, reminds me of my wonderful childhood and makes my heart itch from these lovely memories. For example, I spent exactly 49 minutes in a checkout line just to get a tweezers. It was wonderful. Huge queues are a part of life just like brushing your teeth. The cash register women takes her time since she has nowhere to be and chit chats with people since they all know each other. Or the little bakery store, you stay in the line to order what you want, they give you a ticket, then you stay in another line to pay for it, and then you go back to the line to get your stuff. Todd often asks me why you can’t just do all of it at once…I am not sure if I know the answer to that one. Also there are those little Fiat cars and old Volkswagens (filled with about 9 kids and three adults with no seatbelts). Just like all my 8 cousins and I in a little Trabant going with my Aunt Veronika to Duchunka lake.

Todd also gets a little frustrated when they don’t have the right motorcycle tool that he wants in the store. He has been looking for a little tool for COCO for about 4 days now. He managed to translate what he wanted in Portuguese but that does not make people have it. He has been in about 40 stores and they all talk to him a lot and tell him that their friends across the street have exactly what he needs. So far no luck. He says his limit is 80 stores then he might have one sent from home. It does not bother me at all, I learn my patience from growing up in a communist country.

We have been trying to connect with UNICEF but the offices are open usually only twice in week, always on the days we are not there. Hopefully soon, maybe at our next destination (Rio) we will be able to hook up with some other organizations\ and start doing some volunteer work.

Miss you all!
Love, Kristi

Buenos Aires

Hello everyone,


It has been a month since we left home, and we are already sitting on the border of Uruguay and Brazil. Buenos Aires was a wonderful city. Even though we initially were faced with illness and some tooth problems, we managed to have a wonderful time in a very beautiful city.Buenos Aires reminded us so much of Italy for its cappuccinos, architecture, cafe society, pedestrian streetscapes, and beautiful people.

We spent the first few week just exploring the city and familiarizing ourselves with the culture. We stayed on the top floor of a beautiful 1925 Spanish tutor home, owned by a women named Cristina her two sons ( Tito and Pablo), and their maid Carmen. Carmen was from Peru and had a very hard time pronouncing my name ( just like many others here) and always called me OTT. She immediately adopted Kristina as her daughter and they became friends. While Kristina helped her with her English homework she definitely helped her improve her Spanish. She even made a huge chocolate cake for her. We definitely felt at home with Crstina´s family.

Once we heard that our motorcycle ( Coco) made it to Buenos Aires we decided to save a few pesos and took a bus instead of a taxi.Three hours later in the rain, we arrived at customs. It was very rainy and cold day and of course there was no heating on the bus. The bus dropped us off on the highway. After crossing 25 lanes of traffic we arrived at the security check point were you had to register to get through more security check points. Of course, we only had my passport with us so they would not let Kristina in ( since her passport was in the US. embassy awaiting a new visa). After an Internet passport copy retrieval they gave her a pass to get in.

Once we were in front of building # 5 we were faced with offices numbered 1,2, and 3. These offices were very small filled with many people speaking Spanish very rapidly. Little did we know at that time that we would be visiting each of those offices no fewer than 5 times each. A stamp here a signature there a hello baby there. But all and all it was very civilized and everyone was very nice and helpful. The entire process took four hours ( plus the 3 hour bus ride) of which only 10 minutes were needed to uncrate COCO and have her standing on her own two wheels. We got her all put together , battery connected and realized that the gas station was 6 blocks away. Faced with pushing the motorcycle to the gas station fully loaded we decided that Kristina´s charms would have to be tried to smuggle the gas into customs with no container in hand. So I sent her off to the gas station. She manged to come back with a container that she found in the garbage and was able to fill it full of bright green benzina. When I asked her what that green stuff was, she answered that it is "benzina ecologica". So the gas arrived to the amazement of the customs officials who I thought were going to applaud her arrival. The gas went in, the motorcycle started and off we went driving in Buenos Aires for the first time. It sure helps having GPS. That doesn´t stand for Great Prices on Steaks.

Just a word about dulce de leche, steaks, mosquitoes and bombons. If you don't know about dulce de leche it is a sweet caramel filling or sauce that you can find in just about everything. I even think i saw it in a toothpaste. Bonbons are indescribable chocolate candy filled with heavenly filing. Steaks range from 6 ounces to 2 pounds from parts of a cow that I never new existed (including its bowels) And last question, how do mosquitoes the size of your fist survive at 40 degree Fahrenheit? That´s it for now, see you next time.

P.S. Check out our spot links. It is our ok/help/emergency locator that positions us when we activate it.