Brasil (Brazil): Rio de Janeiro at the wrong time of year

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by Günther Eichhorn

One dollar, one tree, one planet.
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During my trip to South America in September, 2002, I stayed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a few days. It was definitely the wrong time of year. It was dreary and rainy the whole 4 days. I only saw the sun once on the drive to the airport for my departure. I was lucky to see anything at all from Sugarloaf Mountain and from Corcovado. On both mountains I had only a few minutes before the clouds closed in and I was in the clouds. All the beaches were completely empty throughout my stay there. But I can imagine the scenery with good weather, it must be spectacular.

I walked around Rio a lot while I was there, seeing parts of the town a little further away from the beaches. One thing that is very obvious are the homeless people. There are lots of them on the streets. Some try to make a living, like the acrobats on a intersection that moved in the middle of the street when the traffic light turned to red and gave the waiting motorists a show. Others were just lying in the streets, sleeping during the day and begging at night. I saw lots of them going through garbage cans, picking out stuff that they could use, including food!!! Another sign of poverty there are the Favelas. These are shanty towns on the flanks of the hills around Rio. Common sense (and ample warnings from the tour guide) tell you not to go into the Favelas on foot, so I don't know what the living conditions are there, but from what I could see from afar, it doesn't look good.

Walking around lets you also see some nicer aspects, in particular the bird life. There were lots of different birds around the city. The most impressive were the fregate birds. They are huge (wing spans are around two meters) and they soar. Masters of soaring, they hardly ever move their wings. They congregate in large schools wherever they find a thermal column of rising air and circle in the up drafts.

In Brazil I visited also Foz do Iguaçu (Iguazú Falls). The pictures from there are shown on a separate page.

A lot of the pictures from Rio are very hazy. That was because of the lousy weather, not because of the camera. All pictures are © Günther Eichhorn

Brazil Rio botafogo
 View of Botafogo bay from Sugarloaf Mountain. (73k)

Brazil Rio overview
 View of downtown Rio and Sugarloaf Mountain from Corcovado. (104k)

Brazil Rio sugarloaf
 Sugarloaf Mountain from Botafogo. (96k)

Brazil Rio sugarloaf beach
 Sugarloaf Mountain from Botafogo. (122k)

Brazil Rio sugarloaf clouds
 This is how I saw Sugarloaf Mountain most of the time. (76k)

Brazil Rio corcovado
 Corcovado peeking out of the clouds as seen from Botafogo. (72k)

Brazil Rio statue
 Christ Statue on top of Corcovado. (46k)

Brazil Rio copacabana
 A deserted Copacabana beach on a cool, rainy early spring morning. (110k)

Brazil Rio acrobats
 Acrobats on a red traffic light trying to make some money. (122k)

Brazil Rio favelas
 View of one of the Favelas. (125k)

Brazil Rio favelas
 View of one of the Favelas. (144k)

Brazil Rio favelas
 Favela over Rio. (143k)

Brazil Rio homeless
 Homeless sleeping in the street. (103k)

Brazil Rio homeless
 Homeless sleeping in the street. (98k)

Brazil Rio fruit tree
 A strange tree with fruits growing out of the trunk. (193k)

Brazil Rio birds
 Bird. (102k)

Brazil Rio pidgeon
 A small pigeon (half the size of a regular pigeon). (124k)

Brazil Rio birds
 Bird. (111k)

Brazil Rio birds
 Bird. (134k)

Brazil Rio fregatte birds
 Fregate Birds soaring above Copacabana. (48k)

Brazil Rio fregatte bird
 Fregate Bird in flight. (37k)

© Günther Eichhorn
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