After a
Saturday 12K morning run I decided not to spend time on the beach but to
further discover Rio!
Even on
Saturday morning it was a challenge to pass the
Lagoa area. Driving through Botafogo, Flamingo and Gatete I drove up a
mountain and noticed some anti-crack signs on the road. Hmm that did not
sounded alright but I thought what the heck, I continued. My car is black with blinded
thus dark windows! After a few minutes I arrived on square full of garbage,
clusters of people, dirt an OMG mess, immediately 3 police man came to me and
stopped, as if I wanted to continue! The police was heavy armed told me that I
can't drive there with closed windows and advised me to lower my windows, and I
decided to return. Driving through this
dangerous favela with all my windows open was probably not a good idea. Just
the view of these police man with their heavy armory was not a pretty sight,
and I did not felt the need for permission to take a picture. At the small
square I pulled some drivers skills (European driver of the Year) in turning my
car in record time and drove to a slightly more civilized part of town!
It was a
shock and part of living here. Reality bites! Up on the mountains are the
favelas and there is a risk! The police is taking a hard stand on the drug
trade in the favelas. This of course with the Confederations Cup, Fifa World
Cup and Olympics in mind! Ts highly questionable of this cleaning up will
really help. All around Rio are fevelas, unfortunately in some of them the drug
gangs are making living there for sometimes hundreds of thousands of
people very dangerous.
To de-stress
this sudden and unpleasant experience I enjoyed a caipirinha and a moqueqe
(fish stew) in Gloria, a few hundred meters down from the square on the hill on
the terrace of Taberna Da Gloria! That was actually a very good meal for 28
Reas, which is spectacular in this immensely expensive city, perhaps the
location plays a factor here?
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