We started off another day in Rio with a mission. We wanted to get into a favela at all cost. Favelas are shanty towns that are run by drug lords. They can be extremely violent and the police are there every day. Gangs within the favelas fight for power and the thousands of people that live within keep quiet in exchange for favors from the people in power. We heard a rumor that there was this guy who did tours through these favelas so we called him up and for a pretty penny we jumped on some motorbikes and went into this thing. It was totally safe with this guy ok? If there was any trouble he said he would take us down a different path or stay with one of his many friends along the way. So for a few hours we walked around this garbage dump where people somehow survive. Bullet holes line the walls of graffiti depicting the stuggles within their community. Fortunately some of the money we gave him goes to support some relief work like schools and health clincis. What an experience!
Later that day in poured hard so we decided to stay another day in hopes of getting some more sunshine. We decided to go see a movie. We wanted to see Spiderman 2 but it was sold out so we bought tickets for Shrek 2. After a little wit and lack of Portuguese skills we found ourselves sitting in the Spiderman theater anyway. All in a days work! Ok, Brazilians are passionate about life. Imagine the passion you'd expect at a Brazilian soccer game and transfer that into a theater. There is cheering, clapping and they get so into the movies that it is more like a big friendly party. I have never seen people go crazy and cheer at the get the girl parts or laugh their heads off at the cheesiest jokes ever. Luckily for the 3 English speakers in the crowds, everyone had to read the subtitles over the English movie. yay!
-steve
