Rio de Janeiro, anxiety and thoughts of a digital nomad
I’ve wanted to come back to Brazil ever since I came here 10 years ago. Back then I was 18 and was travelling with a friend who was also Brazilian, which inevitably made things a lot easier for me. I really didn't need to worry too much about anything.
This time I’ve come by myself, 10 years older and hopefully wiser. But I’m not going to lie I was a bit anxious before coming here again, especially travelling by myself. Not knowing the language well enough and with all the ‘bad’ things you hear about Brazil and in particular Rio it was almost inevitable as a solo traveller you might feel like this. Especially after the recent election which sees the far right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro win by a majority, some media outlets are calling him Brazil's answer to Donald trump and to add to this you have the increased military presence and violence since the beginning of this year.
So it was hard not to have this impending sense of doom as soon as I got off the plane. My anxiety was almost reinforced as I very nearly got ripped off, or worse, when trying to get a taxi from the airport. But following your gut and standing your ground against people certainly has its perks. Tip, if someone asks if you want an Uber and insists you don’t use the Uber app then it’s probably not a good idea to get in a car with them. So politely decline or tell them to fuck off, they should get the message.
I decided to stay in Santa Teresa for the month which is one of the oldest districts in Rio, known for its village type bohemian vibe and vastly hilly streets. Something after travelling to Lisbon I was already quite familiar with. It’s fair to say Santa Teresa is a far cry from the touristic hot spots of Copacabana or Ipanema. But this is what I like and here you are probably somewhat safer than those areas anyway as it’s not targeted so much by crime as it’s the home to mostly cariocas, or people of Rio de Janeiro. That’s not to say crime doesn’t exist here but you can blend in far easier. Just use common sense and logic, only take out what you need and don’t draw attention to yourself, if you do run into trouble don’t be stupid, most of these guys have nothing to loose…
Only two weeks before I arrived two of my friends were staying in Ipanema, they were both robbed of all of their belongings by two men at knife point…
My Airbnb apartment is owned by a man named Michael, German by birth but has lived in Rio for nearly 30 years, an incredibly knowledgeable man and just as friendly. I arrived late Friday night and straight away he invited me to go and have a drink and some food with his friends whilst listening to some authentic live Brazilian music in a nearby bar in Santa Teresa. I wasn’t going to turn this down as this is why I wanted to come back to Brazil in the first place, people like him and the other Brazilian’s I know or have met have to be some of the most hospitable, friendly people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
But a lot of people live almost hand to mouth, times are tough here and the economy has struggled now for many years affecting all but the minority of wealthier Brazilian's. Middle class, in some sense, doesn’t really exist here not when compared to back home anyway. To give some perspective, from my terrace I can see homeless people pretty much all day long shower and wash their clothes from a natural spring in one of the rock faces barely 300 meters from the apartment.
With this post I aimed to give some perspective on how Brazil is perceived by a lot of Brits, how I felt before arriving and to actually highlight why I came here in the first place. It’s the incredibly vibrant and intoxicating culture that the people of Brazil have that made me want to visit this beautiful country again, add to that Rio’s vast natural beauty and exotic charm it was always going to pull me back to experience it all over.
So here’s to the next month in Rio before I travel down the coast to Sao Paulo to meet my old friend, although I’ve yet to book my flight home… 🙄
