Just a quick few comparisons between the countries to prove how much cultural immersion I´ve been doing...

Dogs

In Rio, there are a lot of dogs! Certainly in uptown Ipanema where we are staying, there are plenty of those annoying little handbag dogs, as well as plenty of massive ones. I´d say there´s probably more than in London.

People

The whole of the city seems to be obsessed with fitness. There are pullup bars and parallel bars dotted every few hundred metres along the beaches and in other locations too, there is an entire lane next to the beach dedicated to runners and cyclists, and even most 50 year old men seem to have better pecs than me. Despite this culture of fitness and perfection the beaches are still full of people of all shapes and sizes and nobody seems to wear a shirt and tiny tiny bikinis are the norm. Compare this to Britain where we have a rising obesity problem and for the most part anyone who isn´t the size OK magazine tells us we should be wouldn´t dream of donning the swimming cossy and going for a dip in the sea.

On the whole the city seems to be a whole lot laid-back than Britain. Nobody is in a rush and people on the street will quite happily go through ten minutes of sign language and fractured portuguese to tell you the way to some obscure grocery shop. Britain on the other hand, especially London, and people are always in a rush for their next meeting, manicure etc and try make small talk to someone in the street and you´ll be flat out ignored or given a look as if you asked to lick their face.

Smoking

In Brazil smoking is at least 4 times cheaper than in Britain- although from what i´ve seen this doesn´t increase the amount of people who smoke, as logic would suggest. This surely confirms that putting higher taxes on cigarettes will not make a significant difference to whether or not people choose to smoke, as economics tells us, they are a very inelastic good.

Police

The police here are suffering from a long-term association with corruption, hypocricy and violence- none of this is undeserved. I´ve mentioned in a previous blog visiting a district where 21 civilians were killed by police, and it is not unusual for areas, predominantly the poorer favelas to have stories such as these. Speaking to the local chief of police was certainly an eye-opener- he spoke about trying to repair the bond between the people and the police. So deep runs the mistrust that most people are more likely to turn to their local druglord for help than the police. Certainly, however progress is being made- there are partnerships in place from the police with Natura and Afro Reggae, and bridges are certainly starting to be built. However in my opinion there is still a long way to go- speaking to our reggae friend, apparently in his experience being caught taking drugs on the beach at night can be overlooked by a R$50 bribe to the police officer who catches you.

 

The last few days have been brilliant- free time on Sunday morning yielded a self-organised trip (thanks lauren) by most of the fellows to see Corcorva/Christ the Redeemer, the huge statue of Jesus which stands on the highest mountain near Rio and is visible from most of the city. This was simply mind-blowing, and from the top there was not only the chance to stand by the simply enormous statue- must´ve been over 100 feet tall- but simply staggering views, the city laid out in front of us like a map.