Busy Day in Busytown!

Today I had another day off, and I decided to go to the project at which my friends Carolyn and Rory volunteer. They work in a nursery in a favela in a different part of the city than mine; to get there, we took a combi (a big VW van with no seatbelts that one hails, it feels a bit like hitchhiking). Their favela illustrated for me something that I'd heard often about Rio but hadn't seen yet: the proximity of the really wealthy to the poor. We drove up a hill past huge, ivy-gated mansions worth R$2 million on our way to the favela where concrete slab houses were stacked on top of each other. Apparently, the favelas and the homeowners work out a deal so that any construction to be done on the houses is commissioned to workers from the favela (in exchange, the homeowners stay protected). Anyway, the children were ADORABLE. I still prefer my project because running after babies all day would soon get tiring/feel less than rewarding but LOOK AT THIS FACE

From out the window of the nursery, the favela I visited today.

The place we went for lunch, besides offering an a pot of chicken stroganoff, rice, potatoes, fries and Guarana for R$7, offered this amazing view of the city. The hill on the left houses the second biggest favela in Rio.

After spending the morning with Carolyn and Rory and having a very filling lunch, I caught the combi back by myself, met up with my friend Sally who also had the day off and went to see the famous Selaron stairway in Lapa, which you may have seen in this Snoop Dogg video. This Chilean-born artist became obsessed with Rio and decorated these steps over the course of 20 years as a tribute to the history of Brazil using tile from around the world. The man is somewhat crazy - the other art he does all involves his face on a pregnant woman's body - BUT he happened to be at the steps while we were there. He took us into his private studio and showed us newspaper/magazine clippings with photos of the steps (EDWARD NORTON has filmed on location there!).

Original paintings of Selaron's face on pregnant women are only R$30. I SMELL SOUVENIRS!

After the steps, we walked to Santa Theresa and rode the Bonde (a tram that's free ) around the neighborhood of ST and over the Arcos do Lapa into Centro. The tram moves just faster than a person walking so holding on was not hard. After we got home, we went to see DARK KNIGHT at the local theater. Tickets were pretty expensive but popcorn was ridiculously cheap. The cinema was a surreal experience; after seeing a 158 minute film where everybody (even the extras) spoke in English, entering the lobby where nobody did was off-putting. The movie was very good (obviously not dubbed, which was a blessing; some people I know went to Kung-Fu Panda over here and after paying R$15 realized it was in Portuguese). Heath Ledger, in the role that killed him, was terrifying and the makeup of that guy from Thank You for Smoking was even more terrifying. Christian Bale's teeth as he talks as Batman are not necessarily terrifying but really grating.

I'm having trouble with whether to go to Buenos Aires or not; I finally decided to BOOK IT this morning but in the hours between 2 and 5pm the price went up US$100. I found a British site that converted could get me a flight for $411 but I'm just not sure. It's likely I'll regret it if I don't go, but the Karels frugality is embedded SO DEEPLY within me (hey Tom remember that time I really unnecessarily argued about eleven cents at the Kwik Trip?) that I am still holding back. It's also likely that Buenos Aires '08 means lame spring break '09. We'll see. Now you have a prerogative to read the blog tomorrow.