Slackline With A Homeless Family

BOPE occupies a favela in Tijuca, photo by Max Coelho/BOPE.

The amount of homeless in Icaraí has drastically increased since my last two visits in 2008 and 2009.  From what I understand, Rio won hosting duties for the World Cup and Olympics and now the government has begun Favela Pacification - favelas are invaded and occupied by police forces. Sometimes there can be all out war between gangs and military police but often war lords and drug and gun traffickers flee into the cities surrounding Rio. Basically the homeless, as well as war lords and drug and arms traffickers, are being swept out of Rio and into the surrounding cities, such as here in Niterói.

[Favela Pacification Spreads to Tijuca]

The girls go for a dip with the baby after playing on the slackline.

Russell and I are very popular on the beach when we do slackline. We are equal opportunity and all different types of kids, from high class kids to favela kids, come and want to try the slackline. So when a homeless family set up camp under a shade tree next to us, their kids obviously wanted to come and play - and they did.

The social gap between couple walking and the homeless family is palpable.

Our conversation:

Are you a gringa?
   Yes, yes I am.
Laughter
Where are you from?
   America
Germany?
   No, The United States of America.
Oh, Germany.
   No, the US.
Germany must be nice.
   Yes, Germany is nice.

Deep, I know. But they didn't seem to know of the US - Russell even told them and they still didn't get it.

The family seems to consist of one older man (certainly drunk or on drugs, or both [read about the crack epidemic among the homeless]), a woman my age or a little older (she seemed to be in charge of things), two male teenagers, three younger girls and two younger boys, and one baby.

They all had giant Coca-Cola bottles to drink from. I often see homeless people with Coke, but never see them with water. Why? Coke is cheaper than water. How can that be, right? I know. It's outrageous. Not to mention how may health and dental problems arise from drinking sugar filled Coke as a substitute for water.

Slackline on the beach.

It really sucks that instead of getting these kids off the streets and into school (which in Brazil is mandatory and free) the government instead is just ignoring the problem and transplanting these social and structural issues from Rio into surrounding cities. I don't think invasion and occupation are long term solutions - but hey, at least Rio will be looking good in the harsh international spotlight (note the touch of sarcasm in my voice).

Slackline in Harlem NYC

Russell and I discovered this sweet little slackline place overlooking the Hudson River - and only a block away from our house! Not the best slackline session of all time, but still damn fun! I still need to put up video of us slacklining at Niagara Falls - but first - enjoy Harlem Slackline:

Lake Erie State Park - Dunkirk, Pennsylvania

I have been bogged down by writing about this Niagara trip, so I will summarize the rest here.

Slacklining at Lake Erie State Park

It's a small world, after all.

After Maid of the Mist and delicious fish n' chips at Betty's we headed to Dunkirk, Pennsylvania. Why Dunkirk, you ask? Well, Kris had to visit a winery there. The town is very small, but it does have a Cold Stone (yes!) and it is on the edge of Lake Erie.

Another plus, Dunkirk is home to Lake Erie State Park - a beautiful, green, tree-filled lake-front park. My dad, Russell, and I decided to spend the day at the park while Kris was working. Russell and I slacklined, and even my dad tried (pretty good for a first timer). Unfortunately, while I was slacklining over the grass and wildflowers, I apparently stepped on a bee and was stung right on the bottom of my foot! I scraped off the pulsing stinger, but a portion of the stinger remained in my foot and I couldn't get it out. I just ignored it and went on with my day. Yes, this is the bee sting I wrote about that ended up swollen for three days.

After leaving the park the three of us headed out to lunch. We found a great little place, called Barcelona Café, with spectacular food, all home made. Mmmm...

Beached boat and grape vines.

Then we went to the winery, picked up Kris, and headed to the airport in Buffalo for the flight back to New York. But first, a stop at PF Chang's for delicious lettuce wraps and soup! Good thing we ate, because our flight was delayed, and once we boarded we had to wait on board the plane for 50 minutes before takeoff - no problem, though, I had a great book and sudoku. 

Oh and we had to pass through those full body scanners. I did feel a little violated that these men who I don't know were basically able to see me naked. Glad I have a good level of self confidence with my body.

Niagara Falls, New York: American Falls

In front of the American Falls - Niagara Falls, NY

After my family and I spent one night in Buffalo, which is literally falling apart, we hopped in the rental car and headed to Niagara Falls, NY. Although we had heard that the Canadian side is spectacular, we still wanted to see the US side before crossing the boarder.

We first headed to the American Falls. Walking up to the falls and seeing the raging river was awesome. The power of the river and the thunder of the falling water nearly stopped me in my tracks. Of course, since we were on the American side we weren't able to see the falls head on, but we sure could hear them crashing down below us!

Slickline at Niagara Falls, NY

Russell and I saw some trees and decided that the park in front of the American Falls would be the perfect place to slackline, so we took he opportunity to set up the line and take a few photos and some video. Of course a large group of people quickly surrounded us to watch and take their own photos and video... I wonder how many videos of us slacklining are up on youtube by now? Oh and Russell took another jumping photo - this time it's a  slackline jump over Niagara Falls!

Besides seeing the American Falls and slacklining at them, I have also learned some interesting facts:

• American Falls receives only 10% of the water flow of the Niagara River - the rest flows over Horseshoe Falls.
• The flow over the American Falls has only been stopped twice. Once on March 29, 1848 due to an ice jam that occurred in the upper river - this lasted for only a few hours - and again for several months in 1969. The stoppage in 1969 was man made and the idea was to determine the feasibility of removing the large rock pile from underneath the falls to increase aesthetics. In the end it was decided that the cost would be too great to do this.
• The crest of American Falls is 130 feet and it has a max height of 110 feet.
• This may not be a fact, but in my opinion the American Falls looks better from the Canadian side but sounds better from the US side.

Slackline at the White House

Note: I was told by an internet guru that I should break up long posts into several shorter ones. I will try that out for a while. Let me know what you think.

Russell jumps over The White House on the slackline

Early Saturday morning Russell and I made our way to Penn Station to catch a bus to Washington DC for the weekend. On the way to DC we took a bus operated by Bolt. I was a great experience - tons of room, reclining seats, and a hilarious driver. The driver's introduction was super funny and when we took Megabus home (terrible) I was wishing he was there to remind people that the whole bus can hear your phone conversations, and to please refrain from extended chat time.

Erica in front of The White House

After an easy bus ride, Russell and I arrived a half hour early in DC. I called The Quincy, the hotel we stayed at, for an early 11am check in (normally it is 3pm). On our way to the hotel we made a short detour to The White House for some photos. Russell really wanted a photo of him jumping over the White House, so I scouted out two trees where we could set up the slackline for the photo op. We assumed that we would have a maximum of 5-10 minutes before someone would come and tell us that we weren't supposed to wrap things around the trees, so we had to be quick. That estimate was correct; we got in about 5 minutes. In that five minutes I grabbed a great photo of Russell jumping over the White House and some photos and video of me walking the line. Slcaklining in front of the White House - priceless!

Once we took the slackline down we headed to The Quincy to drop off our stuff. The room was excellent, especially considering the fact that I got the cheapest hotel within walking distance of the sights. I am really pleased with The Quincy, for sure.