The first month, I stayed at a temporary place, Lucilia's apartment, together with my supervisor Atze. When he returned to the Netherlands, I moved to a students' apartment nearer to the university. without internet. (insert dramatic silence)
Since I'm of course working so hard at the university that I can't blog there, there was nothing else that I could do than delivering the necessary TCP/IP packets that make up my next posting myself. This was not easy, as I will explain below.
By land...
Here, I'm running along a beach near Buzios. This is a city near Rio de Janeiro. The beaches here are beautiful. Especially when the sun is shining: then the water is this nicely blue that you can see on pictures. And also warm, such that it is a real pleasure to float around in it.
The beaches were desolated because it is spring time here, and, unfortunately, the weather was cloudy during our two-day stay. That proved to be traitorous. Without a sun, I did not go through the trouble of putting sunblock on. Well, I walked around like a freshly boiled lobster the next weeks...
By sea...
Not even a sea can stop Captain Arie! Aye mates, full speed ahead! And another bottle of Caipirinha for the captain! Safe to say that we didn't really go in a straight line...
By air...
Brazil is a big country. To go from one place to the other, by air is often the only realistic possibility. I'm barely visible at this photo, but I'm getting flight lessons from Cristo Redentor at the Corcovado.
We verified here that people are not to be trusted. There were multiple possibilities to go to the statue: with a special train, or the first part by car ourselves, park, and then the last hundreds of meters with special vans. While we were considering our options, a guy that was waiting at the parking place of the train station said that the parking costs were high (but not unreasonable) for foreigners, but that he could get us there for half the price. We didn't go for his offer, which indeed turned out to be a scam, because parking was actually really cheap.
From the top of the Corcovado, you have a good view over the city. Then you realize how big the city actually is. And also that there are many places where you as tourist better stay away from. These Favelhas, poor neighborhoods run by heavily armed drug dealers, are dangerous, especially for foreigners. In fact, the small lake near where I stayed previously, was located near the edge of a Favelha. I often wondered why there was so many police around there, and why I heard so much fireworks while running around this lake. It turns out that the drugdealers use fireworks as a means of warning and communication.
A bridge too far...
Ai, ended up at the wrong side of the river. Flying is tiring, so how to cross? Fortunately, there was this rope bridge around. Initially, it was one meter above the water level, but the ropes were flexible and I ended up waist-deep in the water. My clothes were in my bag, which I had tied tightly to prevent the bag from hitting the water. This was only a partial success...
There were fortunately no crocodiles in the water. Or other nasty creatures. Walking around half-naked in the forest is not a good idea. It took me an hour to make sure that there were no ticks remaining trying to bite their way through my skin. Ieuw!
*snif* First a shower...
All this traveling made me sweaty. This refreshing shower was really needed. Getting to this place was nasty. The stones were smooth and I slipped and crashed hard. Sitting was a bit painful for a while :+
Arbeiten...
So, all this trouble, where is the actual posting? For that I have to disappoint you for now. After all the above effort, I really had to go back to work. So, I'll save that for the next time!
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