Rio de Janeiro: Christ knows what you did last summer

Leaving Salvador was not easy, having already been in Rio and more or less knowing what kind of madness awaited me.
Rio is a bustling city of some (very) rich and (very) many poor people. Middle class is disappearing, as in many other places in the world, and this becomes obvious when one just looks at the city from a high-up place, as from Cristo Corcovado (Christ the redeemer, the sort-of-symbol of Rio): it is surrounded by favelas, shantytowns that struggle to acquire some basic infrastructure. But in the meantime, more poor people keep flooding in  from all corners of Brazil, and more infrastructure is needed, and the circle of poverty is being constantly reproduced while crime remains staggeringly high and permeates the lower, richer  parts of the city where people live protected behind bars: their own houses' bars. In many ways, Rio is the city of the future, and I do not mean this as a compliment. What happened just days after I was safely back is well known. A fifty percent increase in the price of bus tickets (buses "that pass when they feel like", as people complained in the media) triggered a massive uprising that lasted for days. Things have reached a certain limit in Rio, if not in Brazil as a whole, and one feels this all the way, even as a tourist just passing through.
It has been a long time since I was last there, but I was strangely left with the feeling that not many things have changed, not in real society terms. Rio is an expensive place, like the rest of Brazil (make no mistake about that!), and if you do not focus on your sightseeing you may not really like what you see around you. Especially if things happen to you, as they happen by the hundreds of people on the most emblematic of Rio places, its beaches. Lenient laws against crime perpetrators who originate from the nearby favelas have achieved nothing but exacerbate crime.
Of course, Rio can also be a very charming place, if you can afford it. It is built in one of the most stunning sceneries in the world. My guide Fernando told me that when he was young the sea water was crystal clear and the beach much smaller. But then they decided that there was not enough sand for everybody, and they imported thousands of tons of it (yes, Copacabana and Ipanema are at least partly artificial!) In the end, there was enough sand for everybody, but the beach grew wider than a football field and sadly there was enough sand for criminals as well, which one cannot see due to the distance from the street and the descending level. Lights were then installed to illuminate the place, in order to enjoy beachcombing at all times of day and foot-volley (a Rio invention) among other things but also to prevent crime. And the beaches now really look like an illuminated football field during night , or as if it were Carnaval every day . This is a typical example of how a place is screwed up due to bad legislation, overcrowding and environmental clusterfuck. Frank Sinatra did a lot of damage to Ipanema.
I particularly enjoyed Santa Teresa, where I had not been, an alternative borough of Rio right below Cristo Corcovado. Yet this is another very dangerous place to wander alone, especially in the evening. Another place I would love to meander more was Lapa. The bar place, in a way, where Cariocas (the inhabitants of Rio) seem to be having fun all night and where you are bound to find yourself, if you somehow can gather the courage for an outing after a day in the city.
Absolutely avoid La Plataforma in Ipanema, a sad Las-Vegas kind of night spectacle, where you may find yourself amongst admiring  Chinese commercial representatives (their mouth is somehow always open) and senile Northern Europeans taking pictures while hugging vulgar dancers- of around 1m90 each- under the eyes of their spouses. Have a popsicle somewhere else and spare the money, unless this kind of things really turns you on.

Highlights of the stay: Being there, done that
Downsides: Not spending a day at the beach.

The Pics, or do you prefer Postcards?

Films: View from Pao de Açucar (the Sugarloaf mountain),View from Cristo Corcovado, Plane ready to land, Going up the Sugarloaf Mountain, Coming down from the Sugarloaf mountain, Foot-volley in Ipanema

Next: Paraty: the parade of the saints