Rio de Janeiro's Traveling Pit Crews

I obviously love many things about Rio de Janeiro. Love it! But there's one thing that has always struck me as really freaking cool about this city. 

No, it's not the beer, the hot bodies, the sun, the amazing meat, fresh juices, or the fresh scent of urine.  Although those are all quite lovely.  

Nope, it's something so simple. 

You know when a crappy car breaks down in the street.  There it is, stopped and people honking.  Well in Rio de Janeiro, pedestrians come running to help. I'm not exaggerating, any able-bodied man will bust out a little hustle and help the driver push his car. It's almost as if each car has it's own pit crew following it around the city just in case.  

How freaking awesome is that! No one likes a car sitting in the middle of the road, nor do they like to be stuck in one.  It's community problem solving at their best. Quite often the people just help move the car out of the way, but I have also seen people push a car as far as a city block to a gas station.  

If that's not awesome, I really don't know what is.  

And I just saw it happening, yet again. I was waiting for my ever dawdling senior doorman to come open the gate when a taxi just didn't move with traffic. It took one honk from the car behind it to get people to run over. A moto-delivery guy, a Botafoguense, and a doorman were the first ones on the scene. 

That's when my ever efficient doorman finally decided to work and buzzed open the garage gate.  He was chatting in the parking area behind the building. Glad to see my need to bring my groceries inside my apartment didn't interrupt his conversation. 

Anyway, that's just a picture of Cariocas. They are really helpful people. They stop to push your car, help women with strollers get up and down stairs, and give us ladies an ego boost with hisses. Ok, maybe that last one isn't any help but I'm sure they feel they are doing something good. 

What good deed do people of your city do regularly? 

Honking Magic

Rua das Laranjeirasa has traffic every day from about 6pm to 8pm. Every day people. You can count on it as much as you can count on morning wood, well in men from the ages of 12 to 48. 

Hell, all of Zona Sul, Rio de Janeiro for that matter, has traffic from 6pm to 8pm.  And that´s why I get so annoyed when people honk.

I live right on Rua das Laranjeiras with a beautiful view of the street from my living room. Jealous? I know!  Anyway, every single night there´s at least 3 jack asses who honk like the seven horses of the Apocalypse, or how they would honk if they were driving cars and not flying horses.  So what´s the deal? It´s not like it´s a surprise. Not even foreigners would say "Oh my, Rua das Laranjeiras has traffic. How strange". 

I swear, deep down in their hearts they think their horns are magic.  It´s really the only excuse.  They think if they honk enough, the cars are going to suddenly part and it´ll be smooth sailing all the way up to the Santa Barbara tunnel. 

What they don´t realize is that their horns really are magic, only not in the way that it seems.  One of these days, if they keep honking them enough, they are going to call a strange tall, blond woman who will seemingly fly out from nowhere and rip the damn horn right out of their steering wheel. 

All I need now is a cape...

Beware of Cars in Rio!

I saved a woman's life yesterday!  Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.  I saved a woman's knee from getting bruised and possibly swollen yesterday!  See why I exaggerated.  Sounded so much better the first time.

I was waiting at the cross walk when a parked car started backing up.  There was a middle aged woman waiting and the car practically hit her. I yelled to her, she hit the car, and the driver drove away.  He was a inch away from her leg at that point. The kicker, he had plenty of space in front of him to pull out.  He didn't need to keep backing up.

So here's my tip, as a pedestrian, be scared of cars in Rio. They will hit you.  They will hit you and they will think it was your fault.  I almost got hit by a car while on the sidewalk with my boys in the Hulk (our double stroller).  We were cruising along and some bastard decided to pull out, he was parked on the sidewalk, and almost hit us.  My bad for not paying attention but I really didn't think I had to look out for cars on the sidewalk!  And what is with the obsession of backing up as far as possible when you have plenty of space in front?

So visitors and ex-Pats, know what Cariocas already know. They will hit you!  Be careful when you J-walk. We all do it but, again, I can't stress it enough that they will hit you should you not move fast enough. 

The only time a Carioca is not all Zen is when they are driving.

Driving in Rio de Janeiro

Driving in Rio de Janeiro is an amazing thing.  It's like being in a pinball machine, you bounce from here to there and one wrong move means game over.

In all seriousness, I haven't had a problem. Then again, I have the utmost respect for driving in Rio.  You have to.  Things on the road change from one minute to the next. If it's not a random delivery guy on a bike, it's a sudden traffic jam, or a car cutting over from the outside lane to turn right.

It's madness.  You also have to take in for account the fact  that not all streets have signs, and some that do have the tiniest ones you've ever seen. And if you miss your turn you could end up stuck on a highway for 30 minutes before you can turn around. It happened to a friend of mine. A short-cut turned into a long-cut when she missed her turn and wound up over by the international airport.  2 hrs later she was home with a migraine.

Now don't get me wrong,  this is not to discourage you from driving here.  It's an adventure and a hell of a lot of fun. There are no rules. I don't even know why there are lanes.  Once they repaved a highway leaving Rio and hadn't painted the lanes on. Daniel and I were laughing hysterically because it almost worked better. No one pays attention to the lanes so be prepared.

Here is a great site about driving in Rio. It's in-depth info for those who need to know:
http://www.rioholiday.com/Driving-in-Rio-de-Janeiro.htm

Here's a less tense version:
http://www.turisbarra.com/DrivingRio.htm

In all honestly, you don't need to drive here.  Take a bus. There are buses everywhere and they go everywhere.  And they are an adventure. Hold on, I have literally fallen out of my seat on one of these bad boys. The drivers drive like they are in the indy 500... in a bus full of people.

The subway also works. Doesn't go to as many places as buses but it's a good system.

There are 500 taxis for every 1 person in Rio. You will have no problem getting one unless it's raining.  Cariocas melt in the rain.  It's been proven. They are made of sugar.

Take a van.  You'll see them. The guys hanging out of the VW bus shouting while the car is driving. Yes, that is mass transit. I've taken them. I save them for special trips like zona sul to Barra.

Lastly, walk. Great way to see everything.