Sunday, January 8, 2012

SOC: Attack of the Tourists


I can appreciate tourists. I really can. Hell, I used to be one. The thing is that they are taking over my city.

Seriously, there are too many tourists in Rio de Janeiro. It is enough to make this local go crazy. Today we went to one of my favorite fairs, the Hippie fair in Ipanema. I could hardly walk down the isles!

While I understand that we are in peak season, I have spent many summers here before. This year is far worse than the rest. My worst fears are being realized, Brazil is the new Europe. Backpackers from around the world are coming to stay in our new hostels and drink beers on our beautiful beaches. They are upping the prices of crap goods as, with the exchange rate, the price isn't bad. FYI, you should have seen the price 3 years ago.

You should all see the amount of half burnt people walking around this city. I don't know what it is about tourists in Rio de Janeiro but they never seem to give the sun the credit it deserves. That and they never remember to flip. The front half of their body looks like a second cousin of a cooked lobster and the back the brother of Casper.

And these freaky breeds of Casper and Lobster are taking over this city. With their Tevas protecting their feet and their money distributed over the 37 pockets in their cargo shorts, tourists can now be found in every single neighborhood at any given time.

If it's this bad now, just imagine during either one of the approaching games. Even as a lover of the normally chaotic streets of Rio de Janeiro, all this is enough to make me want to flee back to my Motherland in 2014 and 2016. It is food for thought. One could make a pretty penny renting our their apartment for ridiculously high tourist rates... Who am I kidding? We all know I'll be staying here and using it as Ranting ammo. 


#SOCsunday



This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post on Fadra's page.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

12 comments:

  1. *-* would be great if it were true, if Brazil were the''new Europe "especially if we could improve the quality of life and education of the whole population.

    eu tô com inveja de você, queria morar no Rio, aqui onde eu moro é muito raro aparecer estrangeiros [Graças à Deus me mudo em Agosto]. *-*

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  2. Where are you moving to in August?

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  3. Ahahaha! Yes, tourist season. We get the same in Provence ... lobsters walking around with their cheap wine ... even though my offline biz does well in the summer I really look forward to it being over!

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  4. I live in Pombal [Interior of Paraíba], and I passed the entrance exam At the University Federal of Paraíba State, so I'll choose to live or in João Pessoa [Beaches thankfully!] or Campina Grande [I think that you já visited the city né?]

    E vou viver só! Sem minha família, apenas com alguns amigos, acho que vai ser muito bom! =)

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  5. Actually I've been to João Pessoa. Beautiful place :D

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  6. I am totally against Flippers, and hence welcome the Casperlobsters.
    Plus I bet you they don't suffer from Haviana Abuse Syndrome, preferring to sport manly hiking Sandals.
    The question in the end is if we want a society of god fearing Reaganesque Casperlobsters, or godless Joan Baezish Havaiana Flippers.
    I know what side I'm on.

    My name is Gritty Poet, and I approve this message.

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  7. There's always good and bad stuffs that comes along with tourism booming :D

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  8. as a northwest florida beach native, i understand your pain. there were times it took me an hour to get to work, 5 miles away.

    we all know tourism is important, but it gets to be a pain in the ass.

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  9. I hate tourists, except for when I am one. We'll go just to the local beach (about 2 hours away) and often think how horrible it would be to live there. Just driving to the grocery store would be a nightmare. Never thought about how it would drive up prices!

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  10. This is one of the reasons I love living in Niterói. =:-)

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  11. I was getting money out of an atm on a rainy sunday about 2weeks back and found myself next to a good-sized group os spaniards in PENHA CIRCULAR. At that moment, I realized the tourist situation is really getting out of conttol. There is no escaping them and they are driving up prices (and holding up lines w/their inability to even undesrand "debito ou credito" in neighborhoods where no one speaks english)

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  12. Hi Rachel,

    I actually stayed in a favela for two weeks, Lebron to be exact. It was a good experience, and I was okay with it. My family and I come from humble backgrounds so it wasn't shocking to me. How I ended up there is sort of a long story:-D

    In this particular favela there was a lot of trash and dog poop everywhere. However, I felt safe and once I got used to the conditions it was okay. I am Dominican so I blended in really well, no one knew I wasn't Brazilian unless I opened my mouth. Although I didn't make any efforts to hide. I am not sure why services such as trash removal were so poor. There are mounds of trash in places that just never got removed. I noticed that the further up you go in the favela the worse the conditions get. At the base the structures seems well built and the streets cleaner, and everyone appears to be paying for services such as electricity because you could see meters. As you go up you see the illegal electrical connections increasing. One pole with dozens of conditions running out and no meters. This favela was pacificed sometime in the Spring of 2011, you could see the ruins of the buildings where the drug lords were holding their ground because of the bullet holes.

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