Shape Shifting: We Have Emerged

Posts have been scarce of late.

This is because, we've been saved...


Last Monday we were gifted with the news that our Trinidad and Tabagian homie was bouncing to her native islands for 3 months right when we needed a place for 3 months.

It just so happens, she lives in the middle-class/centrally located place where we “work” — the neighbor-wood of Botafogo.

With the majority of short-term, furnished, rentable places in Rio being in only the most expensive tourist areas, with only the most expensive tourist price tags — our find was a godsend.

Sadly, this may mean significantly less jokes about life above a Favela and below a jungle. Fortunately, it means absolutely every other aspect of our lives will now be improved.

All this change, for the same price we’ve been paying — a combined R$800.

We have yet to swindle a way to snag wireless web waves from our new neighbors but the mall next door has a couple of hot spots. In fact, we pretty much have everything we could ever need in a two-block radius from our building.

This is a sharp contrast from the, can’t walk no where for nuthin’ or no one, status of our old place.

Me n Bob got the Jungle bungalow until Friday but have most of our junk in our new, “kitchenette”/studio/one-room apartment. In fact, we already held a funeral/party/BBQ/Caiparinha fest with anyone willing to make the long, dangerous trek up to our the crib to give it a send-off.

Now, for your entertainment, here are two walk-through videos of the The Jungle and The Fogo residences. These visuals should give you some sense of the wide range of living conditions you can encounter living in Rio.

The Jungle:


The Fogo:


*In other news, Sunday was a fateful afternoon in our sporting lives.

We visited the São Januario stadium in the Northern part of the city, to witness our beloved Vasco De Gama Futebol Club fall into the second division for the first time in their 110-year history.

Shit got grimy.

A post on that later this week, once the wounds began to heal.