Moley and I arrive to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro!!
Another long bus ride, this one 18 hours,
and here I was in another city, and what a contrast it was to Medina. Rio de Janeiro, the famous city whose giant
Christ statue and scantily-clad beach crowds are seen on postcards, t-shirts
and film posters worldwide.
The transition from small-town-Medina and
my Meninadança Pink House family to enormous-city-Rio was made easier with the
companionship of a great friend from back home, Rachel Jones, and her friend
and travel-buddy Australian Lisa.
Knowing from months back that I would be
meeting Rachel in Rio I was looking forward to having a few days of more
traditional ‘holiday’ times, and sure enough we had a great few days as the
trio of Rachel, Lisa and I.
¨The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.¨A great quote taken from Lisa´s book The Drifters by James A Michener.
After 6 weeks of (almost) no drinking at
the project Rio’s caipirinhas went down a treat and had us managing hours of
‘forro’ dancing on our first night out where at the luxury bar in Lapa the Rio Scenarium whose walls drip with all sorts of unusual antiques, with
the lovely company of a couple of Brazilians lads. The next days were spent drinking more
caipirinhas, lazing around in the sea and sand of the beach right on the
doorstep of our super-luxury hotel in Ipanema (the luxury an exciting temporary
feature for me!), chasing errant laundry blown from our balcony by gale-force
winds, eating out at great typical restaurant Jobi and attempting to reach Jesus.
We eventually reached Jesus on Rachel and
Lisa’s final morning. Taking the
sup-steep cable car from Cosme Velho, we arrived at the summit of Corcovado to beautifully
clear skies and had a lot of laughs, squinting and peculiar postures getting
the desired photos (we wanted to hold Jesus’ hands you see!). Christ the Redeemer is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the
impressivley huge statue draws tourists from all over the world and from the
base of his feet you can see stunning views of Rio, including the ‘M’ whose two
humps are the two bays of famous Rio beaches Copacobana and Ipanema.
Another highlight of our days together was
the beautiful Genesis exhibition of
Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado in the Botanical Gardens.
“Genesis
is a quest for the world as it was, as it was formed, as it evolved, as it
existed for millennia before modern life accelerated and began distancing us
from the very essence of our being. It
is a journey to the landscapes, seascapes, animals and peoples that have so far
escaped the long reach of today’s world.
And it is testimony that our planet still
harbours vast and remote regions where nature reigns in silent and pristine
majesty. //
Through these photographs, Genesis aspires to show and to share
this beauty. It is a visual tribute to a
fragile planet that we all have a duty to protect.”
(Taken from Genesis exhibition notes.)
I liked the parallel between the images of
the natural feminine in the photos of Genesis and this graffiti on a wall
facing into the Botanical gardens:
Throughout my wanders with Rachel, Lisa I
also enjoyed spotted more graffiti in the streets:
In the arts,
all that you are not allowed, you must!
Thanks for a fun few days girls! Enjoy your
onward travels in Buenos Aires and Ecuador!
Big love
:-)
¨More love please¨:-)
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