Thrilling Times in Rio

Before the 2016 Summer Olympic Games…before the 2014 World Cup…Semester at Sea arrived in Brazil. Leading up to our arrival in Rio de Janeiro, the community was warned time and time again about the dangers of Brazil. We received multiple email warnings from the US State Department about increased crime, mass robberies, protests turning violent, and more in Rio. In fact, safety was hammered home during the Logistical Pre-Port like never before. Honestly, this was such a topic of conversation, students were unsure of whether they even wanted to get off in Rio. It didn't help that City of God was the film playing on the cabin televisions. This is a Brazilian crime drama loosely based on real events, which depicts the growth of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro between the 1960s and 1980s. In addition, I was selected as a Trip Liaison to the Santa Martha Favela, which was recommended to me by Emily & Jacques (RDs on the Fall 2012 Voyage). However, we received an email from the US State Department stating the US, “BANS travel to Favellas (impoverished suburbs in major cities) due to extremely high crime.” All this being said…the ship arrived in Rio de Janeiro on November 20th (as planned) and allowed us the best views we've had coming into any port.

 Sugarloaf Mountain

Rio de Janiero 

 Christ the Redeemer from the MV Explorer

Side Note: During the Logistical Pre-Port it was announced the ship would be going to the Bahamas as scheduled for fuel, AND the shipboard community would be allowed to get off for one day! This is happening after finals are completed, so everyone should be able to relax and celebrate a great semester!

After waking up early to watch the ship come in to Rio, I went immediately back to bed, as I was on-call the first day. Interestingly enough, there is a rule that no one is allowed to work in Brazil without a work visa. What this meant was the RDs “technically” aren't allowed to work…but we were still on-call (but not working).

The first day in Rio was absolutely beautiful, but extremely hot. Everyone seemed to be taking advantage by going to Sugarloaf and Corcovado…the pictures from others looked amazing. After getting up for lunch, I headed out with Matt to walk around the port area, find some Brazilian Real, and possibly a Post Office. November 20th is a holiday in Brazil. It is the Day of Black Awareness, which is a day to reflect upon the injustices of slavery (which occurred in Brazil from 1594-1888) and to celebrate the contributions to society and to the nation by Brazilian citizens of African descent. Because of the holiday, all banks were closed, and the whole area around the port was pretty deserted. We were told the rest of time, it would be a busy area with lots of people. Another thing reiterated over and over was how much identity theft happens in Brazil. There were examples of people placing cameras or devices in/near ATMs that would take people’s debit/credit card information; “fake ATMs”; and more. Thus, after unsuccessfully trying 4…yes 4 ATMs in three different banking locations, I turned to Matt and joked, “I wonder how many people have just stolen my identity.” After unsuccessfully trying to get money out and not being able to send postcards (because I had no money and the post office we found didn't take credit cards), I returned to the ship…and immediately checked my bank account (which was fine). I did have to call my bank again and have them unfreeze my accounts (even though this supposedly had already been done).

The rest of my night on the ship was extremely quiet, as I couldn't work (ie: couldn't help with the VIP Room!), so I caught up on my blog and watched some Walking Dead!

The next day, I was leading the field program to Santa Marta Favela, a community with 6000 residents. A favela is the term for a shanty town in Brazil, most often within urban areas and on the surrounding hills.

As mentioned before, people had been telling us how dangerous favelas were, so I was interested in what the day would be like. It was another beautiful (and hot) day in Rio when we met with our tour guide, Adelia. On the drive to Santa Marta, she talked about Brazil, Rio, and the favelas. The favela we were going to was the first Pacified Favela in Brazil. The Pacifying Police Unit (abbreviated UPP), is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in Rio de Janeiro, which aims at reclaiming territories/favelas controlled by gangs of drug dealers. For decades, many of the favelas had been controlled by gangs of armed drug traffickers. Before UPP was established, Rio’s elite police battalion would raid the favela and drive the gang leaders out. They then search for heavy weaponry and drug caches, as well as encourage residents to report criminal activity to an anonymous phone number. I liked UPP’s motto, “For the Community, With the Community.” The Brazilian government and the UPP were obviously given more incentive to clean up the urban cycle of violence quickly with the upcoming FIFA World Cup and Summer Olympic Games, which it has, at least in the pacified favelas.

We arrived to the favela and met with Salete, a member of the Santa Marta community, who had lived in the favela her whole life. In addition, our group also brought 2000 toothbrushes to distribute to the community for the program Global Grins. We gave most of the toothbrushes to Salete and Adelia, but kept a box of 100 to distribute to kids throughout the favela as we passed by them. Our group took a tram about 2/3 of the way up the favela and walked the rest of the way to the top along the narrow paths and stairs of the favela. We passed various murals on walls, hearing the stories of why they were created. In addition, the whole favela had a great view of Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer as well as Sugarloaf. 

Distributing toothbrushes to the Tour Guides: Adelia (blue shirt) & Salete (red shirt)

Tram to/view from the top of the Favela

Christ looking down on the Favela 

Mural covering up Bullet Holes

Mural of the Santa Marta Favela Post-Pacification

Painted Houses in the Favela (a social project called "Points of Pride")

Many social projects have been created to keep children from joining gangs, including an orchestra, martial arts studio, and of course fútbol. We passed by a fenced-in soccer area (donated by a local soccer player) and went to the UPP station at the top of the favela (they have one at the bottom and another one in the middle). We met with a few officers who talked with us, answered questions, and showed us a presentation, which included video clips of the night the police raided the favela and drove the drug dealers out.

 Soccer/Fútbol Court

 Movie Screen that shows kids movie every Tuesday night

 Martial Arts Building

We started down the favela stopping at a statue of Michael Jackson. The reason for the statue was because Michael Jackson filmed a music video to the song, “They Don’t Care About Us,” in Santa Marta favela. Side note: Apparently, during the World Cup Draw on December 6^th, the cultural music group, Olodum, who accompanied Michael Jackson for this video also performed on stage after the final draw of the tournament (which the US had a terrible draw being in a group with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana). After finishing the tour, our group had lunch with Salete’s family. It was traditional food: chicken, fish, rice, beans, and an extremely addicting drink, Guaraná (which thankfully I hear you can get in the US).

Michael Jackson Statue

Michael Jackson w/Christ the Redeemer

Mural near the Michael Jackson Statue

 Lunch w/Salete

The SAS Group in Santa Marta Favela (from Salete's rooftop)

Overall the program was fantastic and extremely interesting. Our tour guides were great, lunch was delicious, and I felt completely safe throughout the entire program.

After returning to the ship, a group of us headed out to the Post Office from the day before. We passed by Candelária Church, an important historical Roman Catholic church built between 1775 and 1811. We then headed out to Lapa, a neighborhood in Rio famous for its historical monuments and nightlife, to find a place for dinner. A few of us had an early program the next morning, so we ended the night after a long dinner, which may or may not have included some caipirinhas.

 Candelária Church

Day 3 began at 6:30am. I was once again selected as a Trip Liaison (though still not allowed to work in Brazil) for the Wild Beaches Hike. It was a small group, with only 10 of us going on this program (though 3 more just didn't show up…must have had a late night in Copacabana). We drove up the coast passing the surfer’s preferred spots on Prainha and Grumari Beaches. Before the hike, our guide taped up a big white piece of paper to the side of the van and began doing a timeline of Brazilian history. It was really informative as he went all the way from the Portuguese claiming Brazil in 1500 all the way to the present day in about 20 minutes. Fun fact: Rio de Janeiro (January River) was named because the Portuguese encountered Guanabara Bay on January 1, 1502 and thought the body of water was the mouth of a river. Whoops…wrong; though it is still inaccurately named to this day. After the history lesson…it was time to hike.

We were hiking in Pedra Branca Park, the largest urban forest in the world, and making our way along the coastline. Our hike allowed us to see Marambaia’s sandbank, a 26-mile beach, which no one can go to because of military use. About 30 minutes in, our guide pointed out Turtle Rock, which would be our destination for lunch. The hike was not very difficult (except for the very beginning which was straight uphill for about half a mile) and the guides were fantastic. They would stop to talk about the various flora, fauna, and insects we passed, and seemed to know everything about everything. After hiking and eating lunch on the back of the turtle, we headed down to Perigoso’s Beach, where we’d have some time to relax. The water was absolutely freezing, so not much swimming occurred. After laying out (or continuing to hike/climb around the area, which is what I was doing for the extra hour) we made the two hour trek back to the start and headed back to the ship for embarkation from Rio. 

 Turtle Rock

 Picture from the Turtle's Back

SAS Wild Beaches Hike Group

After getting back to the MV Explorer, Nathan and I grabbed our backpacks…and left the ship. As the ship would be making it’s 2.5 day voyage to Salvador, a group of 9 of us (including Nathan and I), would be spending the whole weekend in an apartment near a beach in Rio de Janeiro before flying to Salvador. I was planning on going up Sugarloaf, seeing Christ the Redeemer, visiting the World Cup/Olympic Stadiums, and not doing too much else besides laying on a beach under the Brazilian sun. Little did we know, mother nature had other plans.

Just about when the MV Explorer was leaving the port, Nathan & I were standing in the pouring rain on a street in Ipanema. Our group had given us an address for a restaurant that did not exist. We know…we were there. We didn't have internet or a working phone, so we couldn't get in contact with the rest of the group we were supposed to be meeting up with. Luckily, Nathan remembered he could get internet on his iPod, so we finally got in contact and realized the group was unable to leave the apartment area because of the weather. Nathan and I decided to take a taxi to them, and realized the traffic was absolutely terrible (like LA rush hour terrible). 6 lanes from 2 major streets converged to one lane, which would take us near our apartment, right at the bottom of a favela (not Santa Marta). Apparently taxi drivers either knew not to take people to this area (for safety reasons) or because of the weather, they knew the traffic would be horrible. It took us multiple attempts to find a taxi that would actually drive us to the area…and even then we had to tell them to drop us off at the Sheraton Hotel, which was about half a mile from our rented apartment. Needless to say, the night was a disaster. When we finally got to the apartment, we realized it would really be near impossible for us to leave. Thus, we ordered pizza, stayed in, and made the most of our night.

 View from the Balcony of the 1st Apartment

Favela next to the 1st Apartment

The next day we noticed the weather report for the weekend was nothing but rain. We had been in touch with the person who rented us the apartment, who felt bad about our circumstances with the weather. He explained he had another apartment in the middle of the city (between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches). After a delicious home-cooked breakfast, a few of our group scouted out the other apartment, and we decided to move there for the final 2.5 days. We chose wisely as it would have been near impossible for 9 people to get taxis anywhere from the first apartment…and because of the weather, it didn't really matter that we were only a few minutes walk from the beach. Instead, we went to an area with lots around it (also only a few minutes walk to a beach).

On my 5th day in Rio, I finally got a chance to visit Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. The statue of Jesus Christ with open arms, a symbol of peace, was erected from 1922 to 1931. It is the largest art deco statue in the world, standing at 98 feet tall (not including the 26 foot pedestal) and 92 feet wide. It weighs 635 tons. The statue is placed at the peak of Corcovado Mountain, which has an elevation of 2300 feet. When I visited, the area was cloud covered, so unfortunately I couldn't see the city or pretty much anything else; however, I did see JC, who appeared as if he were coming down from heaven to chat.

 Christ the Redeemer

 Nathan & I with JC

In case anyone was wondering, the Vales sponsor Christ the Redeemer

The rest of my time in Rio was spent mainly walking around the city, doing some street shopping, and eating. We ate at an awesome place: Carretao Churrascaria, a rodízio style restaurant. This refers to a Brazilian style steakhouse where one pays a fixed price and the servers bring sample of food throughout the meal, until the customer signals they have had enough. The servers just kept bringing over skewer after skewer of meat and would cut slices or chunks off onto the plate. The food was absolutely delicious; and I easily ate the most meat I have ever eaten in a single sitting.

Group at the Brazilian Rodízio 

Green means Go

The final day in Rio left us enough time to grab breakfast at a local place before heading to Santos Dumont Airport to catch our flight to Salvador. We arrived much earlier than needed, so we sat around for about 2 hours prior to our flight. We had to change gates at one point in time, which was fine because it was a relatively small airport; however, before boarding our flight, I realized something had gone missing…my Ohio State hat! I ran back to our previous gate and searched around, but it was gone. With The Game against Michigan coming up in less than one week…I took this as a bad omen, and reluctantly boarded the plane. After the short flight and taxi ride, we were back at the MV Explorer and I had secondary duty for the evening. Luckily it was a quiet night, so I was able to relax and get ready to explore Salvador in the morning.

 In Salvador's airport, I ran into Fuleco (the Armadillo), the 2014 World Cup Mascot 

"Individually or collectively, we must hope that the future will be better than the past, that our offspring, and theirs after them, will be a bit closer to an ideal society, whatever perception of that might be."

"If a person needs proof of a god's existence, then the very notion of spirituality is diminished into sensuality and we have reduced what is holy into what is logical."