Tag: Rio

on billboards: são paulo, rio de janeiro, salvador de bahia

As the bus drove into Rio, it hit me- full on in my face in several metres of printed plastic mounted on metal stilts- that I was no longer in São Paulo. There were billboards all over. And then I was glad for Cidade Limpa, the law that made it illegal to mount billboards or other outdoor signs above certain size specifications. Not only does it allow you to admire…

olympic city rio- reflections on the way to the airport

Another site we passed on the way to Galeão airport is Olympic City, Rio de Janeiro- or what is to become the location for the 2016 Olympics (growing up in Kenya I only realised that there existed winter Olympics after studying in the US-forgive the non-specification that these are summer Olympics). I probably should have taken a picture with my camera, but I took one with my eyes. A picture…

on the way to the rio airport

In the past 6 hours, I have travelled from Rio de Janeiro to Salvador da Bahia, from one former capital of Brazil to another. The ride from my hostel to the airport served as a reminder of the other faces of Rio de Janeiro, faces that are not the postcard image for most people for what Brazil is – beaches, beautiful men and women (a friend once summarised it as…