Rio de Janeiro, 1996
| I was fortunate to
be invited to spend half a year as a visiting researcher at the Institute for Applied
Economics Research (IPEA) in Rio de Janeiro. I can not imagine any place on earth more
wonderful to live. This city simply has everything - an astonishing setting between
beautiful beaches and jungle clad mountains - an abundance of tropical fruits, good food,
and excellent beer - a relaxed, friendly and life enhancing atmosphere - a delightful mix
of charachters - and good places to work. The pictures on this page, however, only shows a
fraction of it because it is best not to carry a camera in Rio. |
| On the top of
Corcovado mountain stands a huge statue of Christ an looks as if he is directing the air
traffic coming into Rio. On a typical tourist helicopter trip from the Sugar Loaf mountain
we noticed that he has an astonishing view from up there. |
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I happened to arrive
in Rio just before the carnival week started. This is a friendly Bolivian guy from my
apartment who offered to guide me through the carnival. He did that extremely well and I
felt perfectly safe in Rio right from the beginning because he looked after me. Now we are
married. The carnival in Rio happened at two levels. There were the official samba
parades in the Sambodromo. These were extremely spectacular, with hundreds of thousands of
dancers wearing almost nothing but feathers and paillettes. Then there were the unofficial
parades in the streets. They were more fun. People who didn't wear costumes were handed
out hats and other gadgets to make them look less boring.
The most fascinating of the street
parades was the GLS parade (Gay-Lesbian-and-Sympathizors) in Ipanema. There were hundreds
of good looking men dressed up as women of various forms. |
| This is a more normal
sunday at the beach in Leblon. The road along the beach is closed for traffic on sundays
in order to let joggers, rollerskaters, and others take a nice stroll. |
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Typical beach
activities include body building, beach volley, and people watching. |
| My favourite weekend
activity in Rio is to climb one of the mountains. The first part usually goes through
rainforest and is relatively easy, unless it has just been raining. When you get over the
forest you have to continue on bare rocks, which is more difficult but you get astonishin
views of the city below. |
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This is the view from
the top of the highest mountain in Rio. It is such a rewarding climb that it is amazing
that there were so few people up there. It is quite difficult to find the trail at the
bottom of the mountain, so that may be part of the explanation. |
| This is the view from
an excellent little restaurant in a hilly neighborhood of Rio. The neighborhood was once
very rich, but people are moving away because favelas (shanty towns) are moving too close
and the area deemed unsafe by parents. The favelas of Rio is often located at the
hillsides with beautiful views of the ocean and the rest of the city. In all other cities
it would be the location of the rich and wealthy, but in Rio the poor people have gotten
the best building sites. However, their poor construction techniques on these hillsides
can make heavy rain and mud slides fatal for the inhabitants.
Despite the alledged danger, I would love to renovate this house and live in this quiet
part of Rio. |
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