Jack McDonald dot Org

Finding my way back to Tijuca Forest was definately easier than finding my way there for the first time. For starters, the round trip cost me less than the abortive taxi ride which was rather nice. Exiting the metro system at Sans Paena, I succesfully managed to catch the correct bus, thanks to this bus stop being the one in, well, the first one I’ve seen in Rio that actually has a semblance of a route map as well as a string of bus numbers.

Buses in Rio are a law unto themselves. I think that when they designed the training system for new bus drivers the guy in charge must have sat down and watched the final chase scenes from Terminator 1+2, Speed plus whichever Mad Max film has the petrol tanker in it. As a result, Rio’s bus drivers are trained to ignore any and all traffic in between them and their final destination. True, all other Rio traffic generally follows exactly the same pattern, except the buses are three times the size of everyone else.

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Seeing as this is my first post and all, I thought I’d take the time to write a letter home to my friends.

So here it is. A fresh start on the other side of the globe. I’m currently resident in Rio De Janeiro. From the 11 days that I’ve been here I can tell this city is different. For instance, their approach to recycling is to let the Favela kids pick up the cans in return for a pittance. This is laudible until it’s 11.30 PM and a barefoot six year old approaches you for the can of beer you’ve been nursing for the last half hour. There’s not much you can really say in such a situation, regardless of the fact that my Portuguese is quite poor. Read more