Fabio Medeiros, our friend and colleague in Dubai who is a proper born and bred carioca, graciously offered to put us up with his grandmother’s sister Dona Margarida during our stay in Rio. “Dona Margarida lives very close to Rocinha,” explained a homesick Fabio over an espresso not quite as s[...]
Archive for the ‘Brazil’ Category
Festival Feijoada
It’s Friday afternoon. We arrive at Bar do Mineiro in Santa Teresa to find a queue of hungry Brasilians eagerly awaiting their turn to dig into a pot of lovingly prepared feijoada. Legend has it this meal, which is usually prepared on weekends due to the long preparation process, was born in the [...]
Boxing Like Rocky: Spotlight on Cleber Santana
I first met Cleber Santana, a 30-year-old Rocinha resident and boxing coach, on a chilly September eve. I was struggling to keep up with one of my English students, Jose, who was weaseling his way through an intricate maze of tiny streets in an unfamiliar part of Rocinha. Huffing and puffing after a[...]
A Leap Into the Forest…
So here begins the travel log of two Dubai girls who have fled the luxuries of the Middle East for rainforest-clad Brazil. Rewind two months back: “That’s the problem with creative agency folk,” my father complained, “one minute you’re happily working the next you have quit and booked a fl[...]
World Urban Forum: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Between March 22 and 26, the city of Rio de Janeiro will host the 5th edition of the World Urban Forum (WUF), sponsored by the United Nations agency for human settlements, UN-Habitat. It is the first time this event will be held in Latin America. A record number of people from over 170 countries hav[...]
Favela Tourism: Harmful or Helpful?
When I told people I was going on a favela tour in Rio de Janeiro, I received a lot of strange looks. After all, those aren’t two words you often hear together. Reactions ranged from, “Why would you want to do that?” to “They are just people living in a different situation. W[...]
