Author: jdv

It was only by leaving the UK that I realised how much I am protected from myself there. Sure, things like safety are important, but we must weigh up how important it is for unattached people with no dependants or other significant responsibilities to be mollycoddled in a cosy nest of protective legislation, cameras and social care.

Yes, I do wonder whether Brazil is a place for the very old. Often poor and always weather-beaten, they struggle their way down the street, sometimes with the assistance of a younger carer, though walking sticks and other aids appear to be quite rare. But for a visitor like myself, little could have prepared me for the different decisions I make here. I must decide whether to walk down a particular street, at what speed and in what direction to leave the Metro in a outlying area, who to follow where there are no street signs. What noises are good and what are bad. Whether behind the eyes of someone watching my beautiful friends Julia and Nina is anything more than inquisitiveness, and if there is something more, is enough to make us cross the road? Decisions. The rattly street car (BRL$0.60 each way; about 27p), the ultimate safety-free option from Santa Teresa to Centro jerks to an unmarked stop above Lapa. The grinning kids from the local morro, tired of entertaining the tourists by hanging by one hand from the car, jump down and saunter off – they don’t pay and neither are they expected to. There is some shouting from the front: it is descision time. Do the four of us get off here and stumble down the steep paths into the relative unknown, or sit for an indeterminate amount of Brazilian time for the thing to move off? We jump down, and find ourselves half walking, half tripping past homes with simple steel meshes rather than glass windows (did they ever have glass?), heading down tiled steps into Lapa. The girls stop for photos but Pierre and I find ourselves fulfilling a quietly observant, protective role which I don’t even remember having need of even by a cash machine in Shorditch at ten o’clock. This job feels oddly male and natural – a purpose for which I was designed. We both seem to know how to act, although guarding our tribe. We make eye contact with the rather ragged occupants of the Lapa arches. We silently note their age, their weight, how fast they might be, how interested they are. We clock the passers by, identifying the body language of more experienced Cariocas to help us make our decisions. After a minute, I hear myself suggesting that we move on, notice myself planning a route through the relatively open space using the same techniques, inspecting the side roads, trying to plot the best path to the cathedral. I always seem to have somewhere I’m going, here. I decide to, say, walk to the tram stop, the shop, the Metro. Even when I’ve been lost, I can see Christo on the hill, and I know from which side of him is visible where I am in the suburbs. I’m constantly compiling this information, ranking it for relevance, then looking at faces, looking for peace. Considering my options.

Thinking about that tram ride reminds me of something. It is wonderful how the best and most exciting things in this city are often nearly free, and the more expensive things are typically international or simply unintrepid choices. There are lots of examples, especially in transport: a larger, airconditioned, more expensive but probably slower bus, or a smaller, more aggressively driven bus for half the ticket price, cooled by sea air through the open windows as the driver dodges through the traffic? A yellow taxi (still very reasonable) or a white, unlicensed (although that is changing as the government sees the value they provide) VW camper (still made here to a slightly modernised 1950s design) with the destination simply printed on a card in the window with the price? Ok, so no seatbelt, not much padding on the bench, not much suspension, but far more life, and two Reais (less than £1) rather than 7. I jumped in one of these with a Caucasian Brazilian girl who moved to Philadelphia years ago and who I had been chatting to in Santa Teresa’s winding cobbled streets. She seemed as much the tourist as I am, but reassuringly streetwise. And we both made a new friend as we walked from where we were dropped through the streetlife to Gloria Metro.

Still more examples of price being an indicator of appeal. Food, one of my favourite subjects. There are three lads from South London here. They enjoy hamming up their accents and making everyone laugh, but one joke revealed something typically British. Last night they ate at Domino’s Pizza. To do that, they would have had to walk some distance down Praia Botafogo Shopping past any number of Brazilian bars, all selling fresh food at a quarter of the price. They admitted to having arrived at one of the popular local eateries here, sat down, accepted the menu and walked out five minutes later. Ok: they couldn’t read it or even guess at its contents, but they could read the prices and maybe the headings and have a stab at ordering something in their budget. I don’t blame them: the temptation to be risk averse can be quite strong, and often for good reason, but I’m sure there was some pizza in that menu, and probably visible in the hot cabinet by the bar. There is no way they needed to pay Dominos for something they could get better from a Brazilian joint. People have been telling me that Rio is a risky city, but in some things, I think the risk is actually of missing Rio after you get home without having got much out of the place.

Which reminds me that I’m sitting in front of a computer writing e-mails when there’s a breeze and a view from the beach three minutes walk away. Mind you, it has to be Rio when to get to that view you have to run across eight lanes of dense traffic…

Here’s a slightly techie article.

We’re normally almost oblivious to the demands we make on an internet connection or a local area network when out of our home environments. Even in the most well-equipped home, where each occupant has a mobile and a computer (say, eight devices in total?) the actual bandwidth utilisation can be quite low in the case of normal surfing. Firstly, the mobiles might be connecting by 3G over the cellular network some of the time: we can subtract that activity from the home network equation. Secondly, normal surfing comprises a tiny request for some data sent upstream to a server which responds by sending a large quantity of data downstream. For that reason, ADSL, the most commonly deployed basic internet connection I’ve encountered, offers much more downstream bandwidth than upstream. Thirdly, usage can be easily moderated by off-line family communication: If the net “feels” slow, you can ask around and find out who is downloading a movie or streaming from BBC iPlayer, negotiate and come to an acceptable agreement on who consumes what capacity when.

Now take an independent hotel or hostel. The hardware might be similar or identical to the setup of the home due to the familiarity of such hardware to whoever was charged with “setting up the internet” so it is unlikely to have the corporate QoS features and cooling which will make it more suitable for heavy, reliable use. Almost all the occupants are away from their low-cost cellular connections, so they must use the local wi-fi. In some cases, the more technically able might use analogues of the cellular services they are used to like Skype and other VoIP services which are higher bandwidth consuming applications – this is unlikely in the home, where a switched cell or landline call takes that traffic away from the network. Whilst residents may be willing to talk to each other, the social dynamics make observations about the internet usage of another resident largely off-limits. There are other high-bandwidth applications, some of them strongly web-based. Users may be anxious to demonstrate their intrepidity to friends and family at home by uploading pictures to photo-sharing services like Flickr and Facebook Photos which are big consumers of the ADSL’s smaller upstream channel and these days permit any number of photos to be uploaded one after the other, hogging the upstream bandwidth for far longer.

What I’ve learned:

– turn off non-essential network services on your own machine. You’ve probably forgotten about the two VPNs and the zero-configuration service that runs all the time, broadcasting and tickling the internet connection. I did. Don’t contribute to the problem!

– if you can get access to the config pages of the router (with permission, of course) you could experiment with changing QoS (Quality of Service) settings and maybe also isolating wi-fi clients to prevent traffic passing between them unnecessarily. A nice side-effect is an improvement in security between the clients.

– if the router is a home-user model, you should not be surprised if it cannot handle the number of concurrent connections and routing requirements of even a moderately busy hostel without becoming congested and unresponsive. They generally only have passive cooling and are liable to overheat – remember that hardware functioning is not always an “on” or “off” matter. Overheating can reduce performance, so don’t let them make a neat little stack of the gear and spread it out a bit.

I’m sure there are other steps you can take to get around the bandwidth problem, but when power-cycling the switching and routing hardware, remember that they may be users on hotel-owned, ethernet-connected elsewhere in the building who may be paying by the minute for the service.

Something that has occurred to me is that if the congestion or unreliability is mainly the wi-fi (that part of these little routers often seems to go wrong when the ethernet is still perfectly fine) and you happen to have a small wireless access point, you could plug this into a free ethernet socket on the switch, thereby offering a less-congested wireless option to those in the know.

A few more insights into the culture I’m exploring here. Feel free to direct my musings from the virtual armchair of the comments, but reports are coming in that the commenting here isn’t working well. I have created a Facebook app so so that comments made on Facebook appear here. Would be glad if someone would test that theory….

Driving. It’s a well-known fact that all men like talking about driving, and all men secretly think they can do it really well. I’m no exception. So let’s talk about driving for a bit. The Cariocas are definitely good drivers – if they weren’t you would walk past a recent accident on every street corner. But they are undisciplined. Even bus drivers ignore red lights and drive so fast that the bus leans (“rolls”, Andy) dramatically, even on gentle bends. They have a manual gearbox and resolutely stick to third (“best gear”, eh, David?). If there is a party crowd on the bus, everyone shouts and cheers, encouraging the driver to go faster. The buses stop a lot more abruptly than I’m used to, and for reasons I’m not used to, either. Like trying to miss the corner of a lorry that has pulled across with an idle thumb indication from the driver. All the cars are equipped with indicators but rarely are they used at useful times. Crossing the road is normally the better safety decision – the alternative is badly-lit subways where muggings are more common in the evenings. The thing that makes it interesting is that these roads have four lanes in each direction and no barriers ( just high curbs and trees). The drivers do not slow down, so you must play real-life frogger and learn to read the pattern of cars coming up to spot a crossing opportunity. If you like the person you’re crossing with, you might on occasion grab them by the wrist and either pull them out of, or into the road with you. I haven’t yet deduced the policy for dealing with the fallen, but I have no doubt that anyone on the ground would be hit within seconds, probably by a yellow Opal Meriva – the taxi vehicle of choice in these parts.

Road planning is just as exciting. In order to avoid a set of traffic lights at a complex sliproad/intersection combination (which might, heaven forbid, slow everyone down), the authorities do not hesitate to add an entire road where drivers stay to the left although they’d popped out of the Chunnel on the limey side. They do put up a non-standard design of sign explaining this, and I will admit that it saves tarmac footprint in the built up area in Botafogo, but if you happen to miss this sign or don’t have time to read it, your life immediately gets very strange indeed.

Road crossing deserves more analysis here. There are two kinds of crosser – those who slavishly wait at crossings for the green man, and those who cross like Londoners. Both techniques are used at the same crossing at the same time. Initially I took responsibility for my own safety and crossed as I would in London: plan ahead and walk across, and turn that walk into a jog when necessary. But that takes a lot of mental effort when the crossing is before an intersection where cars may be changing lane and speed quite erratically. It is even exhausting to save those few seconds or minutes when the road is relatively “normal”. So now I stand with the others more often than not, not bothering my heat-addled mind with more planning and analysis. When the green man chooses to arrive, I make my move. Then I feel like a Carioca.

Everything purposeful here goes more slowly. Everything. The ultramodern tube trains eshew the potential possible efficiency gains of running more services, and instead stand idle and announcement-free for minutes at a time at each stop. Actually, there are no announcements of any sort on the network – bus or tube. I quite like it: on the Tube, someone or something is always barking at you. In Rio, you take your time, running for nothing (except safety in certain situations I’ve not yet encountered?) unless you’re running for running’s sake of course. And physical exercise? It is part of the culture here. If you’re just about wealthy enough not to have to work continuously selling biscuits and acai on the beach, then you’ll dedicate at least some of your time to running or making use of the exercise stations around the promenade. They look like bus stops, but are more like multigyms with no moving parts, all in brushed steel. The muscular Cariocas do pull-ups and sit-ups in the glaring sun, taking turns with their friends.

More later on an amazing Samba experience I had last night. Off for a shower and into town now.

[Don’t know what happened to this post! It’s only two months late! Ended up on a temporary Posterous blog somehow but didn’t want to waste it.]

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 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

For all the great birthday wishes! I had a good night out to celebrate
with lots of samba. They know how to party (and lay on great late
transport) round here. Sorry for short posts from my mobile.

0730 – is the wifi working today?

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.