Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the wrong time of year
by Günther Eichhorn |
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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 (Iguaçu 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
 View of Botafogo bay from Sugarloaf Mountain. (73k) |
 View of downtown Rio and Sugarloaf Mountain from Corcovado. (104k) |
 Sugarloaf Mountain from Botafogo. (96k) |
 Sugarloaf Mountain from Botafogo. (122k) |
 This is how I saw Sugarloaf Mountain most of the time. (76k) |
 Corcovado peeking out of the clouds as seen from Botafogo. (72k) |
 Christ Statue on top of Corcovado. (46k) |
 A deserted Copacabana beach on a cool, rainy early spring morning. (110k) |
 Acrobats on a red traffic light trying to make some money. (122k) |
 View of one of the Favelas. (125k) |
 View of one of the Favelas. (144k) |
 Favela over Rio. (143k) |
 Homeless sleeping in the street. (103k) |
 Homeless sleeping in the street. (98k) |
 A strange tree with fruits growing out of the trunk. (193k) |
 Bird. (102k) |
 A small pigeon (half the size of a regular pigeon). (124k) |
 Bird. (111k) |
 Bird. (134k) |
 Fregate Birds soaring above Copacabana. (48k) |
 Fregate Bird in flight. (37k) |
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