___ __ _ _ _ / __\ __ _ ____ /__\ ___ _____ __ (_) | _( )__ /__\/// _` |_ / / \/// _ \_ / '_ \| | |/ // __| / \/ \ (_| |/ / / _ \ __// /| | | | | < \__ \ \_____/\__,_/___| \/ \_/\___/___|_| |_|_|_|\_\|___/ _____ _ __ _ /__ \_ __ __ ___ _____| | \ \ ___ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ _| | / /\/ '__/ _` \ \ / / _ \ | \ \/ _ \| | | | '__| '_ \ / _` | | / / | | | (_| |\ V / __/ | /\_/ / (_) | |_| | | | | | | (_| | | \/ |_| \__,_| \_/ \___|_| \___/ \___/ \__,_|_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| ____ ________ . . \ \ | hi | . o o ,====== | lo | . _____ _ _ _ _ / \ | techno | \ \ ______ | . . |\ |_' _____| o \ \___ _ / === _ | | |\\ \ . ______\___\__________/dyfr/ | | |_ |\\\ // _/= - - - - - - - - - - _/ o | _- |/ // o (_________ ___________/__ _ _ _| |____// . \ \ / \_____/ ___/ \ \ __ _ _ _ / _ / o . \ \ / / | | o \__\___ __ _ _ / / | | . . . ________/ /___|______|_______________ . . . / ___///____ ________ /| / / / / / / / / / | / /__________/ - - - /_______/ / | (In the world of ASCII art,vinyl and turntables are rectangular) You might know Baz Reznik from his cult DYFR records label and DJ mixes and productions, you might not know that Baz Reznik is also a writer! In 2011 he wrote a real novel called "The day after yesterday", a rather cool book about the dark side of a dutch DJ....its in dutch only tho... He is working on a new book apparently which is going to be some sort of travel journal. Baz wrote something in English for this magazine about his arrival in Brazil....we didn't hear anything after this so we presume he never made it out of the favelas... The arrival by Baz Reznik Going on a world trip is easy. You just need a decent job in a western society, a travel partner / wife (also with job) and the determination to live two years on pasta so you can save enough money. The difficult thing is leaving everything and everybody behind. To say goodbye to your job, house, family and above all security. The security part is the part we miss the most when we land in Rio de Janeiro on the first day. After eighteen hours of flight (did I already mention that the world trip is a budget one?), Brazil can be breathtaking. Literally cause the forty degrees in combination with a lot of shouting South American cabdrivers is something you generally don't want to encounter after almost twenty-four hours without sleep. Rio de Janeiro is a gigantic city with more than 6 million people living there. The fact that carnival was about to begin did almost double this number and made the prices of the hotel skyrocket. That is why we decided to go couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is a worldwide website dedicated to get travelers who have a spare room for other travels in contact with each other. We found a nice girl with good references in Rio who wanted to take us in for three days and show us around in town. Her house was a bit outside the tourist area and this is where the problem started. The first five cabdrivers didn't know the address (or any English and with the quick course Portuguese I did in the plane I couldn't really do more than count till ten and say "thank you" which didn't help much at all). The sixth one did know the address but told us it was in the middle of the favelas. The favelas are the slums of Brazil and generally not the safest neighborhoods (to make a comparison: being in a minefield in Congo can be saver because at least if you stand still not much will happen to you, there are saver favelas now but that weren't the ones we were heading to). We convinced the cabdriver to take us there anyway to have a look. When driving to the address the houses looked worse and worse. The cab had to slowly maneuver through half blocked streets with garbage and cracks in the concrete. Even the Brazilian cabdriver locked his doors and we felt the tension. Twenty six hours ago we were in the Netherlands, having a cup of coffee on the airfield after saying goodbye to family and friends, now we were driving through exactly those areas they always say you have to avoid with no knowledge of the country, language or our general surroundings. We were in Asia before but never in South America and never (apart from some streets in our own city) in a neighborhood where even the cabdrivers don't want to be. Our relieve was immense when we stopped at the address and the building turned out to be a gated and heavily guarded community of six flats right between three favelas. The cabdriver jumped out and got one of the guards who, after showing him the address, looked around before opening the fence to let the cab drive in. After us they immediately closed the gate to only open it again to let the cab leave. It was one in the afternoon, right on time, when we told the reception to phone our hostess. Our dream of finally being in a safe environment to get some drinks, food and maybe some sleep was shattered by the receptionist telling us the phone was not answered. There was nothing else to do but wait on a couch in the reception and hope our hostess would turn up any time soon. We couldn't go outside into the favela and there was nowhere else to go: because of carnival all the hotels had been spoken for months ago. TO BE CONTINUED... By Baz Reznik You can purchase Baz Reznik's novel here it is in dutch language only! http://www.tunnel-radio.nl/dedagnagisteren.htm