Rio de Janeiro: Part 1

It was a great pleasure to find myself with a set of research excuses to be back in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend. To share a secret, at heart, I think I might be a Carioca (person from Rio), or maybe I was in a past life. All I know is that I wouldn't characterize myself as a “city” guy, but there's just something about Rio that's infectious. Here are some thoughts on why I feel drawn to Rio:


It could be the beaches:

Max Relaxing at Ipanema

It could be the mountains which encircle the beaches:

Ipanema with the mountains known as Dois Irmaos (Two Brothers) in the background

It could be the juice culture:

 

It could be wonderfully hospitable friends who make amazing french toast with nutella topping, and who happen to have a stash of peanut butter!

It probably wouldn't be the fast food that people seem to subsist on when there not having their acai:

Hot Dog with Raisins

It might have something to do with the really cool graffiti and murals throughout the city (in all seriousness):

Unfortunately, it no longer can be linked to the neat little cable car that ran through the Santa Teresa neighborhood where my friends live. The cable car, which I vaguely remember from my time in Rio before, was shut down this last year after a cable car accident left 8 people dead. The neighborhood seems to be incredibly upset about the absence of the cable car, which is known as the Bonde (pronounced bon-gee) after James Bond due to a film of his that was filmed here.

And those research reasons I mentioned, well, participant observation (the bread and butter of the anthropologist's methods), of a march of people who are planning the “People's Summit” which will occur at the same time as the Rio+20, and serve as either a counter-summit, or simply a summit showing alternatives to global leaders, depending on who you talk to.

and yes, given the above reasons, this blog post is part 1 for there will surely be a part 2, if not a part 3, and part 4 as various family members and friends earn their gold stars by making the trip to the southern half to watch the toilets flush counter-clockwise.