The Three Peaks Challenge

One week ago a group of twenty-six Gringos and Cariocas attempted to climb three mountains in less than a day. I remember feeling pretty amped that morning, but nothing prepared me for the amazing experience that laid ahead. 

We tackled Pedro da Gavea first, the most challenging trail that included a bit of mountain scaling towards the peak. We started our hike at 8:30am and it was warm and humid, but luckily the dense rainforest saved us from direct sunlight. Our hike began with a steep incline of stairs made from the ground and roots of trees. As we progressed further up, walking up stairs turned to rock climbing. It was so much fun because you had to think about how to get yourself up, where to put your feet and make sure you had a firm grip. On some parts we needed to help pull each other up and use metal ropes put in place by the park.

As we approached the peak we finally hit clearings with the most amazing views. The dense forest made it hard to tell how far up we were moving so this felt like a "aha, wow" moment.

By now we could see the peak and I started to mentally prepare myself for the climb. The wall itself is about 3 stories high and pretty smooth with narrow cracks and small grooves for climbing. We arranged for two professional guides to help us climb and organize safety ropes and harnesses. Most of the men were crazy enough to climb on their own including Hub, which was terrifying to watch. I'm sure to a professional mountain climber this was nothing, but if my Hub slipped he had a split second to grab that safety rope or tumble off the edge! Surprisingly I wasn't afraid to scale and I felt secure with my harness. I had to climb the wall like everyone else finding little places to put my hands and feet while a guy at top tugged me up.

Once up I realized my worst fear, a tiny little trail approximately 1 1/2 feet wide on the ledge of the mountain. This freaked me out and I just kept imagining myself tripping and rolling off the edge.

Finally the trailed turned inwards into a forest and TA DA! We walked into a prairie of bushes, flowers, bugs and overlooking all of Rio. I can't describe the elation of getting off that trail and standing on top of mountain!  

And what goes up, must come down. 

I was pretty scared of abseiling down and having to wait my turn whilst perched on a cliff only wreaked havoc on my nerves. As I went down I kept reminding myself to lean into my butt or risk crashing face first into the side of a mountain. The hike back down was tiring and felt never ending, but we bumped into a fierce little snake and a scary spider which was cool.

We headed towards our second mountain Dois Irmaos and got to hike through this beautiful and colorful favela called Vidigal. Unfortunately our first hike took longer than expected and we were rushed off to our final peak.

Looking up at Dois Irmaos

Top of Vidigal

We reached Corcovado Mountain at 5:30pm and we had to reach the top before the park closed at 7pm. The Corcovado trail was similar to Pedro da Gavea and the first half was an intense uphill battle of stairs. Hub and I were exhausted and just as we thought the trail was leveling out, we reach a wall of rock climbing.

Looking up at Corcovado

Towards the end we just went for it and made it with just 10 minutes till park closing. 

 

This was an awesome adventure and I really surprised myself! I enjoyed every minute of it and it was so rewarding. I couldn't have made it through without Hub and all my friends and family who supported and sponsored me so thank you. 

I hope I've inspired you guys to join us next year for SCWC Three Peaks Challenge 2014. Email info@streetchildworldcup.org.

Welcome to Forte do Leme

Next to Copacabana is Leme, which is a less touristy neighborhood with more quiet beaches. At the end of the beach is Morro do Leme which is a beautiful mountain with a hiking trail that leads up to panoramic views. We thought it would be great practice for SCWC's Three Peaks Challenge, which I'm fundraising for and here's a link to my donation page (wink, wink). We will be climbing 3 mountains in 24 hours and I'm super excited. It's going to be intense (there's a bit of rock climbing involved?!?) and I've never really challenged my physical stamina. We will also be ending our hike with Christ the Redeemer, which I have yet to see. 

All along the trail are these beautiful wrought iron markings and Hub mentioned that people sometimes do a religious pilgrimage, crawling up the the trail on their hands and knees. 

One of the best things about the hike were the wild animals. There were these massive bright blue butterflies everywhere that for the life of me, I could not capture on film. And of course these little guys called Micos who would come out and say hello. 

The top is just stunning with 360 views. I got to see nearby cities, Sugarloaf mountain
and all of Leme and Copacabana. 

Welcome to Favela Complexo da Penha

Hub and I are officially living in Rio and we are settling in just fine. We moved here to be closer to Hub's upcoming project Street Child World Cup (SCWC) and we've already hit the ground running. On our first day I joined Hub on a business meeting in favela Complexo da Penha, one of the city's most notorious barrios that has recently been pacified in the lead up to the World Cup and Olympics. I was really looking forward to this trip. I was curious about the level of poverty, what the people would be like, and how it would compare to City of God. I didn't want to do any research, so that was my reference point.

Philip Veldhuis who works for Favela Street and has been living on/off in
Complexo da Penha since '08. He's Dutch, but is very Brazilian.

We went to visit a project called Favela Street who are training the Brazilian girls team for the SCWC. In brief the SCWC will be a conference on street children and a soccer tournament, where street children from 19 different countries will be flown into Rio and play against each other in the style of the FIFA World Cup. Nanko, who runs this program and IBISS program Soldados Nunca Mais (Soldiers Never More), took us in and showed us around. We got to meet the girls who were all very polite, but I had anticipated a bit more interaction. Some of the younger girls showed interest in Hub and I whereas the older girls were very nonchalant.

So the pacification program is where the military have entered and "occupied" certain favelas in an effort to them clean up and push out the drug gangs. This sounded like a wonderful program, but Nanko and Hub explained the more mixed reviews from the residents. They don't fully trust the military in their neighborhoods, who to be fare are often plagued by corruption. I was told that police often react on a "shoot first, then ask" basis, which is just horrifying. And even after a favela has been pacified, tensions still run high and war can break out at any time. Just last week a fight broke out in Complexo da Penha and a police officer was gunned down. I felt comfortable and safe all day, but it was made clear that we would not have been allowed to enter this favela without Nanko. It was a bit surreal.

Hub and Nanko. The meeting took place at this little bar and everyone knew Nanko.
Locals would stop to say hello and hang out with us.

Complexo da Penha reminded me a lot of El Salvador. The streets, the energy and the smells took me back to my summers spent in Ilopango and Ciudad Credisa. We spent the majority of the day just at the base of the barrio, hanging out with locals and boys from the IBISS program. We took a quick tour of the favela on motorbike, which was really fun. We went to Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, a beautiful church that towers over the neighborhood. On our way down we rode through narrow streets (think two of me wide) and down staircases. I'm usually such a chicken, but what a rush!

Me geekin' out with my motorista

Hub and I were taken to the top of the favela for a quick photo. There were few local boys
watching us, trying to speak in English to us Gringos.

Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Penha de França

We stayed until sunset and although conditions there are sad, Complexo da Penha is a beautiful place. As we left Max, an ex-soldier from the IBISS program who had spent the day with us, gave me a hug and said what a pleasure it was to meet me. It was so genuine and I was really taken aback. I felt grateful to have met him and get a glimpse of his favela life. 

We're going back for their weekly Sunday night fiesta with feijoada and dancing. Keep you posted.

Interesting Reads:
The Guardian on pacification
Map of pacified neighborhoods in Rio
BBC introduces Nanko, Max and Complexo da Penha
SCWC launches in Rio

Wine Night

In the lead up to our move to Rio de Janeiro for Hub's job with Street Child World Cup, we decided to have a few friends round for food and wine. Inspired by my WSET wine course and Erin's successful cheese night, Hub and I decided to throw a wine night. We wanted it to be very informal and more about enjoying the wine than critiquing it. We asked friends to bring a bottle of wine of their choice, selected from a wine shop instead of the local off-license.

And of course wine night wouldn't be complete without some munchies. We started off with dips, chips, crudite and cheese. After the third tasting, I busted out my homemade pizzas, but by then things got a little hazy. I forgot to take photos. Oops!

We had a good selection of both red and white wines and made sure everyone tried a glass (or two) of each. All the wines we tried were fantastic and here are the labels if you want to read up/buy them in the future. 

My favorites that evening were the two that Hub picked from Broadway Wines. I always prefer red to wine, but ever since my courses I've really started to crave white wines.

 

 

That night we were hit with a horrible thunderstorm and were so grateful to those who schlep out to see us. I'm sure going to miss these guys, our friends and family, our beautiful flat, London Fields and even you, London. It's been fun!