Thought I'd post another blog entry before we set off to Brazilia at the end of the week.
Hugo is off exploring the delights of Rio nightlife with Brazilian contacts he's made out here through his couch-surfing network. He's proving a very enterprising visitor. The morning after
he arrived he left our flat for a run
without either a map or a phone but duly got himself back here after an hour or so. He has fortunately inherited Patrick's inbuilt sat-nav and has orientated himself extremely quickly in our local area.
Sunday was hot so we headed for the beach though somehow we ended up sitting in the gay section (which we do live close to) which was definitely not what Hugo had come to Rio for but his couch-surfing contacts came in useful again and he wandered off up the beach to link up with them and spent the evening in a bar with an interesting mix of other young people, including the guy who is responsible for WikiRio who he's out with tonight.
He and I headed for Niteroi on monday. We caught the ferry across and came back by bus across the bridge. Cariocas tend to be rude about Niteroi
and say the best thing about it is the views back towards Rio but it made a
good day out. We took a bus all
along the coastline and spent a happy session admiring the Niemeyer modern
art museum which looks a bit like a flying saucer. While there we met a young couple who live in Edinburgh. She runs the Coco chocolate shop
in Bruntsfield and he's an architect
who recognised a fellow architect in Hugo, maybe partly on account of my GSA canvas bag!
The next day was duller and after going round our local food market in the morning we took the bus out to Barra so Hugo could see a bit further along the coast beyond Zona Sul where Rio+20 and the Olympics will be held. Our friends Kate & Greg Stewart who live in Barra had kindly offered to loan us their bikes and so we made use
of the bike path along the coast (great for me, probably v tame for Hugo) after a lunch of fried sardines at a kiosk on the beach.
We then 'did a Patrick' and managed
to get a bus that took us in the wrong direction and went for ages before it stopped. Much to my amazement, Hugo's sense of geography triumphed again and he was able to work out, in
the dark and without a map, roughly where the bus had taken us and we managed to get the Metro back. I'd never been to that section of the metro map before!
Today I'd fixed up for us to be given a tour of our local favela by a young Australian guy who's been living there for the past year. It was a fascinating visit - I hope we didn't ask too many crass questions! As anticipated, the views down over Rio were amazing and since the elevator shaft was put in, access has become much easier for the inhabitants. The facilities in the community centre cum school were very impressive with lots of computers, a well-stocked library, dance studio, good-sized swimming pool etc.
The favela is well-established and was one of the first to be pacified so felt quite safe to walk around though I
don't think I'd have done it without a guide. Sam, the Australian, turned out
to have trained as an architect which made it interesting for Hugo and I think the 2 of them are going to meet up again next week.
This afternoon Hugo met Patrick downtown after work and they visited the ugly cathedral and a couple of other landmark buildings in the remaining hour of daylight (it gets dark here before 5.30 at the moment which Hugo finds very disconcerting) before heading back here on one of the scarily -driven buses that run between Centro & Ipanema.
I'm trying not to think about how he's going to get back from the nightclub in Lapa in the early hours. As soon as any of the kids (or even my brothers!) are
sleeping under my roof again, I automatically start feeling responsible for them and with the added 'danger' factors here in Rio, I doubt if I'll get to sleep before he gets back - it could be a long night!