Rio de Janeiro Trip
8/11/00-8/18/00
I've meaning to post this for quite some time but I only just now got around to it. This post is about the single coolest experience of my life (so far, but will be very hard to top). (Sorry for not using the proper Portuguese character set in this post, I know I should but I got lazy.)
Back in 1999-2000 my best friend and I did some pro-bono web site work for a Brazilian orphanage for HIV+ children. You can still see that work today here, though unless you can read Portuguese it'll probably be lost on you. 
In return, the doctor running the orphanage, Sociedade Viva Cazuza, invited us to Rio de Janeiro for a week so that we could learn firsthand about what they do and see their city. We left our unhappy wives at home (SVC couldn't afford for us to bring them and neither could we) and headed to Rio on August 11, 2000 and returned to KC on August 18, 2000.
Below is a small selection from the hundred or so photos I took on that trip. Intertwined with the photos I'll explain more about Sociedade Viva Cazuza.
Sociedade Viva Cazuza is located in on Rua Pinheiro Machado (Pine Axe Street) in the Laranjeiros (Oranges) district -- an area somewhat similar to Kansas City's midtown.
Here my friend Ken sits outside the entrance to the Cazuza museum.
Cazuza was a major pop star in the 1980s who contracted AIDS at the peak of his career. He was the first major Brazilian celebrity to openly admit to having AIDS. The illness changed the tone of his music and he spent the final years of his short life campaining for AIDS prevention and research towards a cure. After his death his mother, Maria Lucia Arraujo founded Sociedade Viva Cazuza as a way to continue his legacy. We got to meet Lucia, she was a very sweet and charming woman.
The following four pictures are from inside the Cazuza museum...
Back outside in the courtyard, here is the children's play area...
We got to meet most of the children living here. They were all really great kids. The tragedy is that every child below is HIV-positive. These children are here for one of three reasons: their parents have died, their parents have abandoned them, or their parents sent them here because they had nowhere else to turn. These kids come from all over Brazil to live here. What Sociedade Viva Cazuza does is provide these children with not only a home, but also as close to a normal childhood as they can ever hope to get. They are sent to public school and the friends they make there need not ever know about their status. And, by living here, their condition is constantly monitored and they are kept on the latest medicinal cocktails in hopes of the viral infection from becoming full-blown AIDS. Thanks to the work of SVC, it is extremely likely that most of these children are still alive today and doing quite well.
(As the kids watched an episode of "Pokemon", we learned from their excited shouts that "Pikachu" is "Pikachu" in any language. 
)
This is a typical example of one of the many dorm rooms the kids share...
This painting was in the administrative office, we just thought it was cool...
Here is the van that transports the kids around town ... and also transported us downtown to buy a replacement computer cable when one of ours gave out...
From left to right: Dr. Betina Durovni (the head of the program and the woman who invited us to Rio), me (at the fattest point of my life, ugh), Ken, and Christina Moreiro da Costa, the General Administrator. This picture was taken on our last day at the facility. For reasons we never figured out, it was obvious from the interactions we had that Christina did not like Ken. So, just as this photo was about to be snapped, Ken quickly put his arm around her.
Because we were there in Rio's winter (when we first arrived the doctors were wearing coats and apologized to us for the frigid mid-70s weather) it was the off-season for tourists. Because of this, when we were not at SVC we were pretty much SOL for finding anyone who spoke English. At our Ipanema hotel we managed to communicate with our bellhop just enough to learn that his name was Salvador and that we could get complimentary bacon every morning. (Ordering room service was an adventure.)
On our first day, after the doctors met us for brunch and the dropped us back off at our hotel, we walked a few blocks to the Hippy Fair, which is like a cross between our City Market and the Plaza Art Fair. However, because we knew so little Portuguese, we were too scared to try to barter on our own and returned to the hotel with no purchases.
Anyway, here is the view from the balcony of our hotel room, looking north...
And here's the view from the same balcony, looking south...
On Wednesday of that week our hosts treated us to a personal tour guide who spent the entire day showing us the sites. Our tour guide's name was Marcia, a beautiful woman who we thought was younger than us until during a conversation on a cog train she revealed that she had a daughter our age. Because she learned her English in Australia, she spoke with an Australian accent while talking to us and a Brazilian accent while talking to everyone else.
The first of our many stops throughout that long and fun day was Corcovado, the mountain with the giant Jesus on top. We parked at an old colonial-era square named Largo do Botarico and then walked a few blocks to the cog train...
Once we got to the top, Marcia took our picture in front of Jesus. (Note: Jesus is much taller than he appears.) The woman on the right we later learned was a fashion model there to do a photo shoot. (Whether her hand gesture is about us getting in her way we'll never know.)
The next seven photos are panoramas of the entire city as visible from Corcovado, starting from north-northeast and sweeping to the southwest. You will need to scroll sideways to see the entire photos, which I know is a hassle, but I didn't want to diminish anything by shrinking them down.
Near the top of this photo is Governor's Island, where the international airport we arrive at is located. You can also see part of the span of Ponte Rio-Niteroi, an 18-km bridge that spans across the bay connecting to the suburbs. The entire Carnival parade takes place in the right-hand end of this photo.
This photo shows downtown Rio and the entire bridge span. Downtown is where we went to buy our computer cable.
Marcia points out various sites/sights to Ken and me...
This shot faces east. Laranjeiros is on the far left, foreground, where SVC is located. Behind that, along the coast, is the Flamenco district. At the center of the photo is the Botafogo district. Sugar Loaf (where James Bond battled Jaws on the cable cars) is in the upper right. Just below that and to the right is a tall building casting a shadow on the mountain that will be pointed out in a later photo. In the lower right is the Humaita district. In the upper right you can barely see Copacabana.
A better view of Copacabana, the most geographically isolated district of the city. The flat grainy area in the foreground is an enormous cemetery.
In the left end of this photo, barely peeking over a mountain, is all that can be seen of the Arpoador district. The long narrow strip in the middle is Ipanema, where our hotel was located. (In fact, due to the uncanny sense of orientation I get everywhere except Montreal, when we first looked over the wall I immediately pointed out our hotel, which really freaked out poor Marcia.) The body of water in the foreground is Lagoa, a lagoon connected by a canal to the ocean and line with parks, trails, and marinas. The Leblon district is on the far right.
Here we we see the Leblon district and a racetrack. Closer to the foreground but harder to distinguish is a large, old botanical garden featuring plants from around the world. Winds coming in off the ocean have blown across the botanical garden, carrying foreign seeds aloft and blowing them up into the mountains. Corcovado, and other nearby mountains, are as a result covered with an amazing array of exotic plants. The mountain peak near the right is named Pedra Bonita and is a popular place for hang gliders. Hidden behind this mountain is Joa, home of Rio's wealthiest suburbs.
At the opposite end of the wealth spectrum (and back on thr ground), here is one of Brazil's many favelas. Rent the movie City of God to learn more about the favelas.
The week we were in Rio was leading up to a mayoral election, which gets more hype than even a presidential election gets here. At the corner of Avenida Atlantica and Avenida Princesa Isabel, people marched each morning for their favorite candidates. (Incidently the hotel in the center off the photo is where we had brunch upon our arrival in the city.)
We saw several of these anti-USA signs while we were downtown -- but never had an English-speaker around to explain them.
This is the end of the Sambodromo, the Carnival parade route.
The tall building in this photo was pointed out in one of the panoramas. The blue building in front of it is a 7-story shopping mall named Rio Sul where we spent out final afternoon loading up on souveniers.
Just before leaving town at the end of the week we realized we never went to the beach. So, we had to quickly remedy that...
Ken hates dogs, but for some reason dogs love Ken. Even a hemisphere away.
My biggest regret is not taking my professional-grade camera on this trip. This is the closest the camera I had could come to capturing the most beautiful scene I have ever witnessed. This was taken in the wealthy suburbs near Pedra Bonia, in the Joa district, towards end end of our day-long Wednesday tour. Shortly after this photo was taken Marcia took us down by the water where we got a treat called acai from a roadside stand and were in heaven.
Though we were only there a week we did manage to pick up more of the language as the days passed... me more so than ken... and as a result got braver. About the middle of the week were got brave enough to explore our neighborhood and find a grocery store where we loaded up on unknown snacks. The next night we found an Italian place... and the next night we explored further and found a pizza shop where I had the best pizza I've ever eaten. (Before we ordered Ken and I each had menus. Ken figured out immediately what he wanted while I was struggling. He got very frustrated with me because I was taking so long. I explained that I was trying to figure out what it said so that I could be sure I got something I liked. He asked how I couldn't figure out what it said when it was written right in front of my eyes on the menu. I was baffled that he learned Portuguese so well. After a couple more minutes of arguing we finally discovered that he had been given an English menu -- mine was in Portuguese.)
On our final day Ken wanted to get a Brazilian Playboy magazine to take back as a gift for a friend. He went into a news-stand, found a display copy of what he wanted, and tried to ask the clerk for a copy. But ken asked for "PLAY-boy" an the clerk didn't know what he wanted. Ken kept trying to point it out but the clerk was not understanding him. Before long a police officer saw the commotion and started eyeing ken suspiciously. Ken finally said "PLAY-boy" for about the dozenth time, but this time made an hourglass shape with his hands.
"Ah, play-BOY!" the clerk said, handing him the magazine he wanted.
That week was truly the highlight of my life to this point. It was a great trip, and it was the first time in my life where I got to see that work I had done had truly benefited somebody.