Sorry this is late, but the internet is disappointing here. I’m going to drop the “Day X moniker, as I don’t think I can manage to post every day, and a lot of what I would write if I did would bore you!
A rather different day, today. I spent more time around the hostel getting to know people. Got up oddly early for me (0730) though feeling it was much later. I went for a walk with Sima around Botafogo before she headed off to fly to Victoria then came back home to get some work done on the net. Slooowww. That’s when I realised how contended the connections here really are. I’m sure there are a number of heavy users in the hostel, and I think the upstream bandwidth is very limited. I also reckon that the contention ratio on ADSL here in Rio is high, so other local users have a bigger effect on the last mile than in the UK where no one has more than about 1:50 contention and many have better than 1:10. It will be interesting to see how weekend performance is. All I know at the moment is that low bandwidth is a way to go, making publishing by e-mail with Posterous an even better idea. I’ve discovered a new kind of hostel dweller – the ideological bore. This one is in his late 30s and is planning the demise of (I paraphrase badly) “Catholic control hierarchy politics of sex and family in Spain”. That wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t planning to replace it with a sort of anaesthetic, soulless computer-driven technomeritocracy. Give me humanity, self-determinism, discovery and theology any time. I left the hostel after this long discussion, met some Aussies from the same house in a local open-sided bar. They’d started on the beer (this was about 1400) and some delicious snacks. I ordered one of the least expensive plates: 27 Reais for some chicken. I thought that was a bit steep until it arrived and was clearly enough for four – the waiter even brought four plates! There are very good meat-in-potato-fried snacks for only 2 or 3 Reais almost wherever you go. Returned to the hostel and met a German guy (Janik) who is studying for a phD in optical computing – using photons instead of electrons in computer processors, but still using the Von Neumann model. It doesn’t work on the bench yet, but he reckons they’ll have it nailed in 20 years. I really love getting into someone’s subject area. It makes me feel like a stowaway and I like people to go into detail so that I can get involved intellectually. I find that most people like talking about their work or hobbies, but I always check that they’re still enjoying the conversation. After all, some people travel to escape their work. This afternoon I played cards with a few others and really enjoyed the company of people who in most regards have completely different backgrounds to me but where we’re united in the huge distances we are from home. People are very chatty and supportive and the wealth of past travel experience is well worth remembering. I find myself storing away restaurant and hostel recommendations, but also more subtle things, like the order to visit things to get the most impact – I should climb up Sugar Loaf Mountain before going up to the Christ the Redeemer statue, for example. I must go to Lapa; I should not walk under the motorway in the tunnels in the evening as it is safer to run across eight lanes of fast traffic, etc. I ate dinner in the hostel this evening. Not as good value as last night in my view, but local food. Chatted about business startups with a girl here (Rosie) who works for her parents’ delivery company but has some ideas of her own which we batted about for a while. I wish I could apply some of the things I think of to my own business, but it just doesn’t seem to benefit from the kind of things I was able to suggest to Rosie. More thinking and changing things needed, I think. I turned down a trip to a samba club in Lapa this evening. Setting off at 2345 didn’t really appeal after an early start, and I would like to tour a favela tomorrow morning (how do I book it?). I’ve heard amazing things from some of the guys who have done it and it’s the only safe way to visit. Over and out. Things I have learned:– browsing the mobile versions of websites takes less bandwidth, so try the m.facebook.com and m.google.com for example. If necessary, get a User Agent switcher, plug in the details of a mobile device (try
Apple-iPhone3C1/801.306 for example) and then pretend to be a mobile for the rest of the session. – Rio is not the place to buy a Thermos, gourd and some Yerba Mate – I’m told if I wait until Argentina, I’ll get the lot for $3, so I’ll hold out and drink coffee instead. – You’ve got to read the menu to work out whether what you’re buying is for one, two or four. Assume two if it doesn’t say and the price doesn’t look quite reasonable enough. Things that are happening:
– I’m drinking a lot of water – far more than normal, and I feel good for it. Bottled water at the moment, but I’m introducing a little tap water and eating salad to hopefully build up some immunity to any unfamiliar nasties. Things I’m planning
– Minibus transfer from the hostel to Ilha Grande when I come to leave Rio, which will save me going to Centro and getting a bus that takes me back past the hostel on my way south. – favela tour. – Barbecue and Lapa trip tomorrow night.