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Features > Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (January 2008) > Pre-Carnival in Rio de Janeiro



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Very elaborate grafitti in Sao Paulo and Rio


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As we were driving by I think I understood this is the governors house (of the state of Rio de Janiero I would assume)


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Yes, it's a VW but in little letters you can see the "Total Flex" there just below the transrio website. That means this car can take 100% gasoline, 100% alcohol (ethanol), or any custom mixture of those. People often find a good mixture for their vehicle given the current prices. The price of ethanol is evidently rarely stable but often too high or too low, but at least with decades of investment into ethanol production and an easier less energy intensive method of conversion for the plentiful sugar cane (versus corn in the US) some energy independence is possible (however, Brazil does have a large amount of oil reserves)
This was taken on the way into a nice shopping mall in Rio - the shopping malls in Brazil that we went to were all very high end with designers like Dolce and Babbana, Christian Dior, and others taking up much of the shop real estate. Many of the luxury goods were of course very high priced and aimed at the female population. Also, many stores had designer goods but looking for a nice (and reasonably priced) present made in Brazil was difficult, but not impossible.


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Next we visited the famed Copacabana beach where people more lounged and stood near the waves than swam (the currents appeared pretty dangerous at least near where we walked)


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The white and black pattern along the sidewalk is the signature of Rio de Janiero and I would guess representative of it's laid back lifestyle compared to the business hub of Sao Paulo where I saw similar patterns made of square-ish bricks instead


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We stopped a bit past the beach at a wonderful overlook and nice restaurant


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The favelas (shanty towns) were present on the outskirts and amongst Sao Paulo and Rio and were stacked right up steep hills and with a very high density, about 25% of the population lives below the poverty line in Brazil


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Before leaving, we headed up to the Sao Bento Monastery, which features a wonderfully guilded interior - too bad it was under rennovation...the altar and sides were at least exposed


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A worker clearing away centuries of soot/dirt I assume


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It was just about closing time and here one of the church employees walks through a photo


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The front door was richly carved


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A color-shifted photo of the ironwork above the main door


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Sao Bento Monastery, Rio de Janiero


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Back to the airport and just as we were boarding it started to rain - here are some photos from the flight back


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A cruise boat


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A refinery (complete with natural gas flame - tough to see in the photo though)


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