Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Beach Day Today plus the tower

This is from dinner last night.  The food was pretty good.  No one is in the restaurant because everyone was sitting outside, it was a great night.

This is interesting.  The tower is built above the Ipanema subway stop.  Just behind the big building on the right is a cliff and a favela - king of a squatter's city.  It is very very steep and when they built the subway, they made an elevator to make the walk easier.

The favelas are the product of history and a old Brazilian government promise of land use. For years they have been sel governed by various mafia type families.  And the police have kind of just let it happen, but now, before the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics the police have moved in.  Suddenly the entrances ( and there is usually only 1 or 2 ways in and out) are now police checkpoints.  Odd 

Today was overcast but we had a nice beach day anyway.  Got a little sun and just relaxed.  Our friend Sam just landed and we ran into him at the market!  Having fun.