A few days after my Paraty camping adventure, it began to rain in Rio. No big deal considering it's kind of the tropics. No big deal until the amount of rain projected to fall in Rio throughout the entire month of April descends within a period of about twelve hours. No big deal until whole communities (almost exclusively favelas) are practically destroyed by mudslides and thousands of families have to evacuate their homes. No big deal until over a hundred people within the state of Rio de Janeiro are killed, most of them living in areas too poor and too shabbily built to sustain "natural" disasters. The whole city was kind of a wreck for almost a week; everyone was warned to stay indoors as much as possible and not to drive, even the biggest stores were closed, and school was canceled for four days. Fortunately for me, the area where I live was basically completely unaffected, but the entire time I was lazing about indoors, all I could think about was how many lives had been interrupted and even destroyed a few miles away. The whole disaster really exposed the economic disparities in Rio to an extent I hadn't seen before. So many of the problems caused for people throughout Rio could have been avoided if Brazil's poorest had been living in better-situated, more high-quality, sustainable housing, but the illegal housing in favelas so dangerously placed along the mountains are all that is affordable for a huge proportion of the population.
On a more upbeat note, last weekend my friends and I ventured out to São Paulo by bus and had an incredible time. Not to be discouraged by our previous attempts in Salvador, we ended up couchsurfing with a wonderful man named Felippe who completely redefined good ol' Brazilian hospitality. First off, his apartment used to be a hotel, which kind of gives you an idea of its luxuriosness - pool, sauna, private movie theater, gym, beautiful, wealthy neighborhood... by far better than any hostel we could have found, and free. Did I mention the built-in tour guide? Everything we did in São Paulo flowed so smoothly, especially after having gotten used to the slow, dysfunctional nature of most things in Rio. We lived a completely different lifestyle, if only for a few days- apart from Felippe's generosity, we took cabs, took advantage of São Paulo's incredibly diverse (particularly in comparison to Rio) culinary palate by treating ourselves to fine dining we could never afford in daily life, and generally just lived the good life. As much as I loved São Paulo, though, I would never choose to live there over Rio - it was gray, the smog was so thick you could feel it in your throat, the traffic was the worst I've ever seen, and there's just no comparison to Rio's beauty and charm.
Speaking of "I love Rio" moments, I had a big one yesterday when I made the long and treacherous hike up to Pedra da Gavea, a huge rock that extends 842 meters above sea level. The hike itself was only a little less than two and a half hours on the way up, but it was by far the toughest hike I've ever done - the constant steep upward incline, in combination with the stretch of rock that had to be completely free-scaled, made for one very worn-out Eshtephanie by the time we reached the top just at sunset, but let me just say (and I know I say this all the time when talking about Brazil): the view from the top was the most beautiful thing I've seen. Each part of the rock had a different incredible look out at the city, and by the time my pink, thirsty, sweaty, tired self had sat down to simply stare, I was overwhelmed with love for Rio in a way I've never been before. I know I haven't traveled as much as I'd like to or seen all of the wonderful places the world has to offer, but as of now I think that Rio is the most stunning city on Earth. Our large group camped on top of the huge rock, sitting and talking and eating but never turning away from the view. We descended early this morning, excited to take a shower and eat something (anything) other than cheese sandwiches and cookies, but already nostalgic for such an incredible glimpse of Rio. As much as I kind of wanted to die the entire way up, the experience of climbing Pedra da Gavea was really an important one for me and I highly recommend anyone who has the chance (and physical capability) to climb it to do so.
(A Pedra da Gavea in all her glory)
(A view of Rio at nightfall from the top of Pedra da Gavea)
As always, I've got some travels in the works, this time to Argentina, Buenos Aires and Mendoza to be exact. I leave for Buenos Aires in exactly a week and will be taking an unappealing 13-hour bus ride to and from Mendoza back to Buenos Aires, which will total nine days in this glorious country that I have been so looking forward to visiting since I got here. That's it for now, I think - beijos e feliz Dia de São Jorge!
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