Travels4Yourself

A trip to Guatemala and Honduras is perhaps the most vivid adventure that has happened to me in recent years. This is a guaranteed demolition of the roof: you have not seen anything more exotic and surprising. When the Mayan cities collapsed, this people went into the mountains, where it was impossible to plant reeds and there was no gold - the Spaniards did not follow them, and the once great civilization was preserved there.


Guatemala is cute. This word first comes to mind when you try to sort through the impressions of the first day. In any case, such is the toy town of Antigua, the capital of colonial times. He probably would have remained the main city of this country, if not for the terrible earthquakes that wiped out the majestic local cathedrals and magnificent monasteries. Despite this: perhaps, nowhere else in the New World have I met such an abundance of well-preserved buildings of the era of the conquistadors. We lived in one of them. Now here is the Porta Antigua hotel: a patio overgrown with flowers, a pool reflecting the sky and a volcano, four-meter high ceilings, fireplaces, antique-styled furniture and at the same time all the comfort of the modern world.

Guatemala is vibrant. Here is just an explosion of all colors! I don’t even know which other country can be compared with it in terms of brightness of colors. Is that India? By the way: here, as in India, the majority walks only in national clothes. And men - they have cotton shorts embroidered with touching parrots. And, of course, women: according to the patterns on their homespun skirts and scarves, the connoisseur easily guesses where the charming woman comes from, in which of the Mayan languages ​​she speaks words of love to her betrothed ...


Women weave all this beauty not just by hand - they don’t even have looms. The guiding threads of the future canvas are attached to the hook on the wall, and the other end to the leather belt, which the girls receive as a gift when they turn ten. Their whole life is a shuttle and cotton threads, they are old-fashioned painted with a decoction of flowers, seeds and leaves of tropical plants, and then fixed with a brew from the trunk of a banana palm.

Our trip to Guatemala and Honduras was just magical. We poked our noses where we didn’t get to, got acquainted with local people, tried everything (especially for “independent” people: we stopped when we got tired, ate where we wanted, etc., but fell into places where you could break yourself, you will not get).

Have you ever seen a pagan temple in the center of a Christian temple? And what about a headdress made of 10-meter tape? And the shaman who takes in the church in the room next to the altar? Drop everything and go there. Thank you, I promise!

Macau is much less known than its neighbor in Hong Kong's colonial past. But only real travelers know why you need to go to Macau, well, or at least why you should look at this peninsula along the road from Hong Kong or China. What do the two former colonies have in common, why Macau has a second name and how the Portuguese past affected the present - you will find answers to these and other questions in our article.

Are Macau and Macau the same?

In China, two names are common - Chinese and more familiar to us. For example, the Chinese name for Beijing is Baijing. That is exactly what the name of the capital sounds in the generally accepted system of transcription of the Chinese language into Russian, and in the Pinyin system - Běijīng. Hong Kong's former name is Hong Kong. So the island was called before Hong Kong became a British colony. The British popularized their name and now it is known throughout the world. Chinese Macau also owes its name to Macau to the colonial period.

Macau is considered the oldest European colony in Southeast Asia. The Portuguese discovered the Celestial Empire before the British and stayed here longer, so Macau is called the first and, at the same time, last European colony in China. There are several versions of the origin of the name. According to the most common, the words of Macau and Macau are simply similar in sound, but another legend says that when the first Portuguese just landed on this shore, they first asked the locals what the name of this land is. The locals thought that the Portuguese were pointing their hand at the temple built in honor of the goddess A-Ma - the patroness of fishermen, sailors and sea merchants - and the Portuguese had not heard this word before from mouth to mouth until A-maa-gok turned into Macau.

Was Macau a Portuguese colony?

Macau was a Portuguese colony, but contrary to the widespread stereotype of the Portuguese invading China, there was no expansion. The history of Portugal in Macau began with a trading post. An agreement was concluded between the Portuguese king and the Chinese emperor, according to which the Portuguese paid an annual rent for the right to use this port. So, Macau became a transit point through which trade routes from Europe to Asia, and in particular with Japan, went, because direct Chinese trade with this country was banned. The Portuguese gradually expanded their holdings by signing lease agreements with neighboring Chinese territories, then gained the right of city self-government, and even built a fortress here to ward off the Dutch attacks.

Probably, such a trade friendship on rent could go on for a long time if Portugal had not suddenly declared Macau a free port by the middle of the 19th century. The colonial authorities stopped paying rent payments, closed the territory for Chinese officials, its soldiers and customs, effectively declaring independence. Throughout the 20th century, China in a soft and not at all soft form reminded Portugal of the right to own territory, and only in December 1999 Macau was transferred to the PRC.

What remains of Macau from Portugal?

In memory of the Portuguese influence on Chinese land in Macau, the Portuguese language remained, which, along with Chinese, is the state language, culinary traditions and, of course, architecture. Macau is often called the “Chinese Portugal”, because only here in the historical center are neighboring so unlike each other mansions in the Portuguese colonial style and modern skyscrapers, Catholic churches and Buddhist temples. The squares are paved with two-tone mosaics, which are so characteristic of the Portuguese Riviera, and the flavors of Chinese dishes hang on typical European narrow streets.

The Portuguese character in the external appearance of Macau is also manifested in the little things: the traditional white and blue azulejo tiles on the facades of houses, even the image of the scallop shell - a symbol of the pilgrimage Way of St. James - can be found on the streets of Macau. The street names here are also decorated in the azulejo style - on a white tile with a typical blue Portuguese ornament and duplicated in two languages, which only adds color and originality.

Is Macau China?

Macau is, of course, China. To be more precise, Macau, like Hong Kong, is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. It is separated from mainland China by its border, and is distinguished by its own legislation, economic and tax systems, a separate currency, even traffic rules. Beijing has been given control of foreign and defense policies. Macau does not have its own army, but there is a police force. The local security service monitors only the order in the city, but not at the federal level.

The neighborhood of two different systems - socialist and capitalist - within the same country was proposed by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. Today this principle of “one country, two systems” is successfully applied not only in Macau, but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Therefore, Macau cannot be called a country or state - it is just a city, and by Chinese standards it is relatively small: the population is only about 650 thousand people.

Does Macau look like Hong Kong?

Despite the similarity of their situation with respect to China, these cities are completely different from each other. Hong Kong and Macau are two completely different stories. Hong Kong was formed as a result of the opium wars of the 19th century that the British Empire waged against China. Hong Kong was a purely conquered colony, which eventually became the largest financial center of Southeast Asia. Macau, however, throughout its "Portuguese history" was an exclusively trading colony, where merchants from different countries settled. In terms of its economic development, Macau lags far behind its neighbor in the colonial past.

So the only thing that Hong Kong and Macau are similar today is that both there and there, local people speak the Cantonese dialect of the Chinese language, both territories are returned under Chinese control as part of the course "one country, two systems."

What are the inhabitants of Macau called?

Of course, Macau residents do not consider themselves Portuguese at all in the territory of the former Portuguese colony. Most of the residents are of Chinese origin and are ethnic Han Chinese, who have roots from the neighboring province of Guangdong. But historically, another part of the locals has not only Chinese roots. In the Russian language there is no suitable word for their designation - Macaonians? makaytsy? - and in English they are called macanese people. This is the name of the East Asian ethnic group that arose in Macau in the 16th century and consisted of people from mixed marriages between Chinese and Portuguese, as well as Malays, Japanese, Sri Lankans and Indians. Many of them have Portuguese passports, but this does not mean that they feel like Portuguese.

In general, Macau speaks the same Cantonese Chinese as in the South China provinces, and the local Chinese are no different from the Chinese, for example, from Guangdong. But this unique mixture of two unlike each other cultures, which has been formed over several centuries, has left its mark on architecture, culture, and cuisine.

Does Macau have Chinese or Portuguese cuisine?

Local cuisine is represented by three distinctive and dissimilar directions. Firstly, it is South Chinese cuisine with all its specialties: dim sum, various duck and seafood recipes, as well as purely local troubles in the form of drunk shrimps, which are first dipped alive in Chinese vodka and then quickly fried on the grill. Secondly, it is a classic Portuguese cuisine, which is represented here by a huge number of Portuguese restaurants and Portuguese chefs. Thirdly, this is the so-called "Macanese" - an unusual mixture of Chinese and Portuguese gastronomic traditions with the clear influence of Indian and African colors. No wonder it is recognized as the world's first fusion cuisine - this is the name for a very successful combination of various culinary traditions. For example, they take bakalyau, but they do not prepare this dried salted cod in the same way as in Portugal, but with the addition of Indian curry or other spices from Mozambique, Angola, Yemen, Goa and other countries where the Portuguese once had their own colonies . A good example of this approach to cooking is the macanese african chicken recipe with Chinese spices, Indian coconut milk, peanuts and piri-piri sauce from hot African pepper, which the Portuguese brought to their Indian territories. Another local tahoe dish is a variation of the traditional Portuguese cozido stew, but with the addition of daikon and Chinese sausage, instead of chorizo.

This completely original cuisine is not represented anywhere else in the world. In 2017, Macau was even awarded a special order of UNESCO: it was awarded the status of “City of World Creativity” in the category “Gastronomy”. Macau was 25th on this prestigious list of cities in the world. Every year there is a gastronomic festival and many more culinary celebrations.

What do you need to see in Macau first?

Of course, the main attraction of Macau is the facade of the famous St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was built in 1602, and two centuries later it was destroyed by a terrible fire along with the adjoining building of the College, the first European-level educational institution in Asia. One can judge the past beauty of the cathedral by its preserved facade - unique architecture with figures of Christian apostles dressed in Chinese bathrobes and with Chinese tassels. So the Jesuits emphasized that Christianity came here in peace, you don’t need to be afraid of missionaries and you can safely switch to a new faith. Directly adjacent to the western facade of the cathedral is the famous (albeit very small in size.

From St. Paul’s Cathedral you need to climb a high hill, where the Macau Fortress and fragments of the preserved city wall, built in 1569, are located. For many centuries, the fortress remained the main fortification and kept Macau behind the Portuguese even after a three-year siege of the city by the Dutch at the beginning of the XVII century. On another high hill, overlooking from the fortress, is the famous Portuguese lighthouse Gia and the castle of the same name - this is the first European navigation lighthouse in Asia. You can climb here through the park or by funicular. An interesting chapel has been preserved on the territory of the fortress, inside which, during the last restoration, unique murals of the 16th-17th centuries were discovered under several layers of plaster.

Macau Walk

The first Lilau square in Macau was built by the Portuguese to live. There are still preserved houses in which the descendants of those who sailed here in the 16th-17th centuries live. the Portuguese. Even the very well with which the well-known Portuguese phrase is associated: “Who drank water from the Lilau well will never forget Macau,” still stands in the center of the square, but we certainly do not recommend drinking from it.

The temple of the goddess A-Ma, which according to legend gave the name to the entire peninsula, is also preserved. Named after the goddess of the sea and fishing, this temple has existed for at least seven hundred years. It consists of a series of pagodas, temples and buildings that stretch up the hill. It is called the temple of the "two religions", or rather the two areas of Buddhism - Confucianism and Taoism.

The Church of St. Lawrence was built by the Jesuits in the middle of the XVI century. Families of the Portuguese gathered here to pray for a safe return to their homeland. Therefore, among the Chinese, it is known as Feng Shun Tang, which literally can be translated as "Hall of Fair Wind".


St. Augustine Square is also a must-see, next to which are several historic buildings: the King Don Pedro V Theater, the St. Joseph Seminary, the library of the Chinese enlightener of the first half of the 20th century, Sir Roberto Ho Tong, and the church of St. Augustine, built by Spanish monks in the 16th century. In those centuries, during the rain, priests covered the roof with palm leaves, which from afar resemble a dragon's mustache, so the local Chinese and for this church had their own name - Lun Sung Mu - literally translated as “Dragon Temple with a Long Mustache”.

The colonial administration was once located on Senadu Square, and today it is the main square of the city. Here is the former Leal Senadu building - The Faithful Senate. The word "faithful" symbolizes the title that the Portuguese king Juan IV gave to Macau in 1654: "Macau is the city of our Lord, incomparable with fidelity to anyone." The ceremonial hall on the ground floor replicates the style of the famous Mafra Palace in Portugal. Also near Senad Square are the House of Mercy, the Church of St. Dominic and the Chinese temple Sam Kai Wui Kun, which was built specifically for Chinese citizens who worked in the Portuguese administration or sat in the Senate.

Main reason to visit Macau

Plunge into the atmosphere of mixing cultures, times, eras. It turns out to be in a very small, but very dynamic city, where so many continents, countries, times are concentrated on a small piece of land.

We continue to tell you about interesting places, traditions and people. Today we will talk about Chile.

We have the idea that Latin America is a place where everyone dances, sings and does not want to work. But in reality, all these countries are completely different. And nothing but the Spanish language and some common history has not united them for a long time. And Chile does not at all look like anything else. This is a very narrow strip of land several thousand kilometers long, and only two tens of kilometers wide, in which there is absolutely everything - from glaciers to the hottest desert in the world, including that part of the country that most resembles the Swiss Alps, only with a gigantic dill - araucaria. Locals consider this tree their symbol in the same way as we are birch trees.


Chileans are such Germans of Latin America. Unlike many of their neighbors, who, to some extent, are really giddy and do not care, they are very collected, very businesslike, very neat and very law-abiding. Both before the military came to power, and after, the standard of living there was higher than that of many neighbors, and democratic traditions were much better formed there. At all times, an attempt to pay off a carabinierus with a bribe promised nothing but imprisonment.

Something is so charming in them. And in combination with German hard work and respect for the law, they are very nice to me. Well and besides, a very bright page of my biography was connected with Chile, when I managed to get an interview with General Augusto Pinochet, I certainly don’t miss the 20th century Barmalei, but I am glad that such a page is in my personal there is history, and it’s nice to return to it.


In general, Chile is a place of power associated with Darwin, who was swimming there as a young man; with Magellan, who first passed the strait between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans; with Drake, whose name is also named the strait; with Cape Horn, where at least 800 ships are considered to be at the bottom. And when you find yourself there, it’s as if you are touching history in some mystical way.

Well, in the end there is a “chime” that I ate once in my life. This is one of the most unusual and delicious dishes I've tried. It is made in a single place - on the island of Chiloe, and it seems to me that there is nothing more to be done on this island. But it’s worth at least to get to the chime.

The Iranian island of Kish in the Persian Gulf is one of the most unusual resorts in the world. Vacationers here bathe and sunbathe, as in a bath. I mean, not because it's hot, but because it's separate. Women are on the women's beach behind a tall concrete fence, and their husbands, you guessed it, on the men's, barely covered with miserable vegetation.

There are, of course, joint beaches here, so to speak, unisex beaches. But there the ladies bathe in ... hmm ... I would call it a light summer coat over which a scarf is put on. And it is very correct! Iran is in a seismic zone.

How correctly noticed one of the local religious leaders! Women who frivolously put on tight-fitting or open clothes, with their appearance, cause indecent desires in men, provoking extramarital affairs and thereby increasing the frequency of earthquakes! But Kish is in all probability the only place in Iran where men are allowed to wear shorts, which, on the contrary, does not affect the tectonic activity of the earth's mantle. And I personally understand her, this mantle.

The appearance of the lower part of the male limb, as well as the upper one, does not cause any activity in me either. Although, according to common sense, I am ready to admit the existence of a diametrically opposite point of view on this subject.

Measures aimed at seismic stability of Iranian society, of course, are not limited to this. For example, shopkeepers are instructed not to display plastic copies of female organisms without a headscarf - a hijab - in shop windows. There is also a catalog of recommended hairstyles that should be worn under a hijab ... I made a courageous decision to abandon the idea to investigate: do Iranian beauties follow these recommendations?
Many people remember the sad story of a frivolous tourist from Germany who saw the sky in a cage after allowing himself an outrageous trick: he hugged his Iranian girlfriend who met him at the airport named after Imam Khomeini.

My Iranian friends say that all this is the horrors and fears of bygone days. Yesterday I myself just watched Tehran women of fashion dressed in a light hijab style sipping their ideologically alien Coca-Cola in a restaurant in Divani, a suburb of Tehran, gently hugging their companions, and they reciprocated.
Allah is a witness: the earthly firmament did not open.

If you go to the country for a week - you will write an essay, for a month - a book, for a year - you will not write anything. There was such a saying in the days when we had international journalism, and I had something to do with it. So, I visited a lot where, but I lived for a long time in Afghanistan, in Cuba and, of course, in Brazil. He worked for two hot years as his own correspondent for Izvestia in the hero city of Rio de Janeiro, chilling by the air conditioner on the 23rd floor of a chic house overlooking the ocean, the statue of Christ the Savior and the Sugarloaf (this is such a beautiful coastal cliff, it’s on all the pictures), and almost every day he sent something clever to the editor, and sometimes not very, mostly talented, but not always, about Brazil.

Wild Monkey Country

The main thing about Brazil is probably that it is absolutely, completely self-sufficient: it, by and large, does not need anyone. This country eats only what it produces itself. Moreover, he sells to all kinds of emirates the meat of cows and chickens killed at the request of the customer in the presence of mullahs according to all Muslim canons. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of soybeans, without which today, I don’t know whether it is good or bad, the world cuisine can not do. Talk about sugar, coffee, fruits? I cannot exhaustively, because every time I went to the store for groceries, I found something new on the counter - seductive, but unidentified. Brazil only rides on its own. In the stream of cars, it happens, something flickers brought from across the seas, but Americans, Germans, Japanese, and even Koreans have built factories here long ago that produce everything you can only dream of. About oil, weapons, satellites, computers, power plants - is it necessary in more detail? Well, that’s good. I’m not very good at it myself, we will limit ourselves to the fact that Brazil sells powerful turbines for hydropower plants to its neighbors, and the French - training supersonic “sparks”. Yes, more about airplanes: Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, is the third largest in the world in terms of production and practically controls the private jet market - every third aircraft purchased by presidents and oligarchs is also made here. Brazil listens and sings only its songs, and wanted to spit on all spicy girls combined with their English texts from high araucaria. Brazil only dresses in its own clothing. Brazil wears its jewelry. Watching his own series. Brazil...

I, of course, simplify the picture. In today's world it’s impossible to do it yourself with a mustache, and this country is still very far from paradise. But all this taken together creates in the local collective consciousness a certain feeling of his own megalomania. In general, there are some reasons for this - it is no coincidence that it is from Brazil that the abbreviation for the new international BRICS community begins, in which we found ourselves with some joy. But where would this complex come from? Not from the same historical incident that Brazil has hosted the royal court of Portugal for several years, and the former colony (the only case in history!) Miraculously turned into a metropolis. I do not know...

But I am afraid that we, doomed to the eternal painful choice between East and West, of this feeling of self-sufficiency, it is true, do not understand at all. We will always miss something with you. Chinese tolerance or the Japanese ability to turn any nonsense into a ritual. We are doomed to envy of European grooming, of American freedom, to ... God bless him, everyone can continue the list. And the rest you are right, of course. This is a country of wild monkeys, parrots and lazy people who only dream about how not to work, but only to dance.

About beauty

Any Brazilian man dreams of the same woman. So that her eyes, like Paula's, have a figure like that of Christina, so that she samba dances like Olivia, and so that she cooks soup like Lucia. This search for the ideal, as, indeed, for most of us, often drags on for a lifetime or ends with the Great Compromise ... For my taste, Brazilians are not very beautiful in face. In this beach country, there is a body cult; it isn’t fashionable to be old (fat), fat (fat) and unsportsmanlike. In Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and other cities, thousands of women every morning run along the promenades or boulevards, covered in lycra, to meet their perfection, drawn by imagination and fashion. In the evening, when tropical twilight falls to the ground, the windows of sports halls are lit everywhere - they run along the paths, pull dumbbells, pump presses and other parts of the body, various Mariselas, Flora and Zelia.

The woman’s age is determined here not by the boring date of birth printed in the passport, but by the time spent on the beach. “How old is she?” One Brazilian asks another. “Five years of the beach,” he answers. Access to the beach in Rio de Janeiro is the first ball of the local Natasha Rostova, when she, having measured dozens of bikinis, finally decides to show herself in all its glory. In the ideal of female beauty in Brazil (and in all, I note, Latin America!), Boom-boom certainly dominates. This part of the female body deserves a separate, non-fleeting consideration. Boom-boom, according to the local population, should be significant and eye-catching. Well, it’s not necessary that it stands out so that it can stand a glass of caipirinha, the local national drink made from kashasa - moonshine made from sugar cane, sugar, ice and lime. Although, of course, it is very, very desirable for the glass to stand there. In any case, the larger the boom-boom, the better, because it is absolutely necessary for the performance of the national samba dance. The reason for the increase in such a hmm ... a noticeable boom-boom in the best half of the population of this and neighboring countries has long occupied me and other inquisitive minds of humanity. I personally am inclined to explain this phenomenon, which is undoubtedly pleasant in all respects, by the nutritional structure, firstly. A genetic feature, secondly. The large amount of carbohydrates consumed in food in the form of black beans and rice undoubtedly increases your chances of increasing its size. On the other hand, the genetics of African ancestors contributes to this: a significant boom-boom is also characteristic of the beauties of the Black continent.

But what’s the trouble here is soup "like Lucia." The vast majority of Brazilians do not have the slightest idea about the technology of making eggs, not to mention more complicated dishes. Inhabitants of luxury apartments on the first, second and third line of houses in the most prestigious beach areas of Rio - Copacabane, Ipanema and Leblone use the services of empregadas - maids. The latter, on the contrary, knows the secrets of cooking scrambled eggs, but all of the above about the beach and boom-boom has nothing to do with them. Empregades are also entrusted with the performance of other boring duties such as washing, ironing and cleaning. The only thing Marisela, Flora and Zelia do not trust them is weekly purchases at the supermarket - for reasons of economy. With great regret, I should also note that Brazilian men rarely eat soup. Therefore, in fact, this point of my research in the field of dreams of a local inhabitant can be deleted at all without the slightest damage to the science of studying the blessed country of Brazil.

About the worst half

Why don't we talk now about a subject no less worthy - Brazilian men? You, truly, think that football is their only all-consuming passion, apart from the subject that I discussed above. Of course, but this is only part of the truth. The second most popular sport in Brazil is called "Let's have lunch on Saturday!" It happens like this - you buy, for example, a newspaper in a kiosk, and a person whom you have not seen before, suddenly turns to you, like a native: “Can you imagine? My guarana is full of food. Well, neither shame nor conscience: "Give it, buy it." Am I printing money? And the mother-in-law? But this doesn’t climb into any gates. ” The following is a passionate monologue from which you understand the vile consumer nature of an unknown spouse and the inherent malignancy of an equally unknown mother-in-law. Of course, you sympathetically assent to the interlocutor throughout the forty-minute report, which deserves his completely sincere sympathy. Having spoken out, he finally draws attention to you and, perhaps, asks a couple of minor questions. All done! He joyfully pats you on the back and, looking into the bottomless depths of your Russian soul, offers: “Listen, let's have lunch on Saturday? I'll call at noon! ”I see, the invitation was gratefully accepted. On the appointed day, you put on a clean shirt and sit down by the phone waiting for the call of your new Brazilian friend. He will not call. Never. “Let's have lunch on Saturday” is just a polite form of farewell forever. There is no malicious intent in all of this; moreover, there is no desire to offend or deceive you. On the contrary, it seems to your interlocutor that he did everything so that you have the most pleasant memories of your warm, non-binding meeting. Brazilians are nice and open people, much nicer and more open than us. But they have what is called their own cultural characteristics.

One more story will probably help you even better understand the mysterious soul of a Brazilian man. The fact is that my Brazilian link came to the difficult for us 90s, when vodka was sold in Russia by coupons, and the shelves of other stores sparkled with almost surgical purity. In the meantime, few of our citizens in Rio de Janeiro weren’t chic, the salary of the Izvestia correspondent was slightly higher than that of the gatekeeper in the house where the bureau was located, but they lived better than those who stayed at home. So, the consulate announced that in a week the cargo ship was sent to their homeland, and anyone who wants to can send a package to their relatives. Of course, everyone wanted to feed their relatives a little. The catch was that the parcel was to be placed in a box of plywood, but where to get it? That's what, and such boxes are not sold even in the city that Ostap Bender had dreamed about. According to the old, still Soviet habit, I decided - what nonsense! I'll make a box myself. And he went to the nearest construction site to look for plywood.

- How do you have here with plywood - there is no superfluous? I asked the first black housebuilder I met. - I will pay.

“Why not?” We’ll do it, ”he answered puzzled and disappeared for a while, and soon appeared with a sheet of plywood and a hacksaw.

I began to saw in the sizes that I had previously made at home. The housebuilder looked at me in amazement, and then cried out at the top of his lungs:

- Guys, come here soon! You won’t believe white can cut.

Wonder city

Residents of Rio de Janeiro, they are called “karioki”, and no one knows what it is, they call their city “cidade maravilhoso” - a miracle city. You can understand them in general: this city is incredibly beautiful!

Its generally accepted symbol is a giant statue of Christ the Savior, embracing the world. According to legend, the emperor of Brazil and Portugal Pedro Braganza himself ordered to build a viewing platform on Mount Corcovado as early as the end of the 19th century, who seemed to be the first to ride here on his beloved horse and was amazed by the beauty of the view that opened up to him. Then, more than a hundred years ago, a tram line was laid here, which has been functioning properly until now. Of course, in the updated version, so that visitors do not puff, climbing the hill for a picture that remains in almost every camera. A photo of a loved one embracing the world in the same way as Christ does.

The authors of the architectural project of Christ the Retributor were the Brazilians Hector Silva Costa and Pedro Vianu. But the figure of the Savior was made by the French sculptor of Polish descent, Paul Landowski. Looking at his creation, most Brazilians are sincerely convinced that a mistake crept into the scripture. Christ, they believe, was not really a Jew, but, of course, a Brazilian, and he created Rio personally for himself. Otherwise, how would such beauty be born?

But, like almost any beauty that occurs in nature, the beauty of Rio is a warning about danger: the city is considered one of the most criminal megalopolises in the world. It’s not worth bothering with this topic too much, but it’s better to carry less cash, leave jewelry in the hotel and not count hummingbirds at all, admiring the beauties of the city. However, these tips did not help me myself. It was cleansed like sticky by three dark-skinned Apollo, one of whom was brandishing a huge knife in front of my nose, while others freed me from documents and money with the help of magicians ... Well, if beauty really requires sacrifice, I brought my miracle city, although not quite voluntarily.

The first favelas, Brazilian slums, appeared in Rio at the beginning of the last century, when thousands of poor peasants were looking for work and happiness in a rapidly growing city. But for many, finding work was easier than happiness. The recent history of Brazil knows examples where people from slums became famous artists, poets and even ministers, but these are exceptions to the rule. Anyone born in a favela usually ends there too.

Today in Rio there are about 700 favelas. Almost all the hills in and around the city are already occupied by independent buildings, and the world of the poor grows up as fast as the world of the rich at the foot of the hills - in breadth.

Rosinha - "rose" - the most famous of the favelas. Of course, there are no street names or house numbers here: they are piled on top of each other, forming a huge city anthill. But there is a home-made water supply, made of pipe scraps, somehow connected to the highway. And the paid bills for light are considered a document at all, something like a residence permit in a passport. It is enough to show them at the bank, for example, to get a small loan. After all, many inhabitants of favelas have no other ways to confirm their viability.

Tours for foreigners are now even taken on favelas, because a resident of the lower city will not go there for anything. He looks with horror from the window of his luxurious apartment at the squalid huts of the upper city. It is curious that most of the inhabitants of the huts work just in the palaces as housekeepers, sellers and waiters in bars. It is estimated that 80 percent of the inhabitants of Rosigny have a permanent job. And they have nothing to do with the drug mafia, which is precisely the only slum power.

If you are going to Rio de Janeiro, be sure to take a retro tram around the area, which is located on the hill of St. Theresa. Legends claim that its first inhabitants back in the 18th century were runaway slaves who hid here from planters. And at the end of the 19th century, Santa Teresa mansions grew up of the intellectual elite, artists and poets, who were the first to guess that living on a quiet, wind-blown hill is better than on a stuffy and hot coastline. The most famous inhabitant of Santa Teresa was, of course, Ronnie Biggs, a participant in a raid on a postal train in England in 1963, which is considered a robbery of the century. Extraction of bandits at the current rate amounted to more than 30 million pounds. The famous robber of Z0 years lived happily in Santa Teresa, taking advantage of the lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries. Only in 2001, who had already exchanged the 8th dozen, Biggs voluntarily returned to his homeland, exchanging a villa in Santa Teresa for a prison cell ...

For me, the main attraction of Santa Teresa is the Russian church. They say that in the 30s and 40s of the last century, on the streets next to her, Russian speech sounded as often as Portuguese. Now not so. There is not even a permanent priest in the church, and its doors open only on major holidays. But what kind of people come here! Here is the churchwarden - Dmitry Nikolaevich Lunin. On his finger is a ring of the glorious noble family of the Lunins, leading the genealogy from the end of the 15th century. The building in Moscow, where the Museum of the Oriental Peoples is now located, is nothing but the Lunin house. But get acquainted: Tatyana Leskova is the great-granddaughter of the author of “Lefty”. In Brazilian encyclopedias about “Lefty” there is not a word, but Senor Leskova is considered the founder of the Brazilian ballet. She danced as a very young lady in the Diaghilev troupe on tour in Buenos Aires, when the famous troupe broke up ...

Ah, carnival ...

Well, we say Brazil - we mean carnival. You, of course, saw frames of the most beautiful holiday on the planet in news releases. But I want to tell you just about what remains behind the scenes. First, God forbid you have any problems these days, even if it’s a household one: all official institutions in Rio are closed for several days, music is rattling everywhere and beer is pouring in. But this, in fact, was not a carnival, but only preparation for it, as well as the election of the most charming fat man - the king of the holiday, his queen and princesses.

The carnival itself is only one February night from Friday to Saturday, and its main action - the parade of Samba Schools - takes place at Sambodrom, a special building that looks like a flattened stadium, and this is its official, and not a popular name. The action begins late in the evening and continues until the morning, when the most likely candidates for victory pass along the path. After all, a carnival is not a parade at all, but a tough competition, which is judged by a jury based on a dozen criteria. The idea of ​​a carnival, its artistic embodiment, costumes, carts, choreography, of course, music, and even the speed of the school along the Sambodrome track are evaluated. Only the uninitiated columns of dancers seem to be just a crowd. In fact, it complies with the obligatory order: a detachment of drummers, a detachment of respectable women in national costumes, a detachment of slightly less respectable women who are almost completely without costumes ... The jury, of course, judges with impartiality, but still the public has the right to vote . If, delighted with the sounds of samba and the beauty of the sight, the Sambodrome enthusiastically jumps up and picks up the rhythm of music, dancing right in the stands - the victory at the school is almost in your pocket! Oh...

But there are no pockets in carnival costumes. Often, little is left of costumes at the end of the holiday. The dancers are so hot that they are happy to exchange the details of their fabulously beautiful outfits with the audience for a jar of cold beer. What does the school-winner of the carnival get? Firstly, fame that cannot be measured. And secondly, again beer. It pours in barrels in the area of ​​Rio de Janeiro, whose school is declared the winner of the year. The times when the carnival was really a national holiday remained in the distant past. The price of each carnival costume today reaches several thousand dollars, the cost of a decorated carnival cart is tens of thousands. Composers, designers and tailors, too, of course, work all year round not for that. Carnival is a business that requires considerable expenses, but also brings huge profits. To whom? I tell you. All "Samba Schools" - the so-called groups that participate in the carnival competition in Rio de Janeiro - are located in the favelas. Nobody knows how many people live there - millions. This is the territory of the mafia, where even the police have ordered entry.

Favelas control criminal gangs, we have recently called these brigades. They, in fact, are the real owners of Samba Schools. Well, Brazilian football clubs too. Pele, Zico, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho were not born at all in the families of large herders and financial brokers. They come from just such a favel. You want to - believe it or not - but Joao Avelange, the former chairman of FIFA, personally went to prison to one of the dubious persons sitting there to confirm the composition of the Brazilian national team at the World Cup. Until recently, the main source of prosperity for these secret masters of life was the illegal Jogo do Bicho lottery - "Game in the Beasts." Initially, fun was invented in the city zoo back in the 19th century in order to raise money for landscaping and buying new animals. It happened like this: images of animals were printed on entrance tickets, and a rally was held three times a day. For example, a jaguar or "jacquard", an Amazonian crocodile, fell out, and the ticket holder with his image received a cash prize. But in the zoo itself, the lottery did not last long - it splashed out onto the streets. In “my” Brazilian days it looked like this: on almost every corner in São Paulo and Rio, a dark-skinned “banker” sat in a torn shorts, who took bets from the population, wrote them down on a dirty piece of paper and in case of a win that was announced several times a day, giving out money. At least a million dollars! And if he hadn’t given it away, washed away with the money, the punishment of “joguirush” would have been cruel and inevitable.

This lottery has existed in Brazil for 170 years, its turnover was in the billions - well, nothing the authorities could do with it! So far, drug trafficking, weapons, and other more profitable businesses have not pushed the "little animals" from the historical stage. The godfathers of the illegal lottery are the richest people in Brazil. In addition to business, they have only two hobbies - football and carnival. Each in charge has its own football team and its own samba school. They, as they say, also order carnival music. Once we shot in Rio for the plot of one of the programs “In Search of Adventures” the evening rehearsal of the School “Salgeiro”, one of the most famous, always appearing if not in the winners, then certainly in the first prize carnival five. Suddenly, the favela's street froze, any sound but a rustle of automobile wheels died down. The cavalcade of black tuned jeeps drove just a few meters from us. The tinted windows of the cars were slightly ajar, of which the black barrels of the M-16 automatic American rifles protruded pointedly. The jeeps drove slowly, they were covered, backing away, a walking rearguard with light machine guns at the ready ... These are the people who sponsor the main expenses for the holiday - the salaries of professional costume designers, composers, choreographers, masters in the manufacture of picturesque cars decorated with figures and flowers, which also participate in the parade. They, the “zogeyirush,” roll out barrels of beer for the whole favela if her Samba School is declared the winner of the carnival. Life, of course, is more complex and colorful than any scheme. Proceeds from the sale of rights to a television broadcast, personal contributions of participants in the parade (to make it clear: up to 20 Schools participate in the competition in Rio, about 1000 participants in each, cost of a costume can reach several thousand dollars), selling tickets for spectators is all contributes a pretty penny to the holiday budget. And yet, the next time you see the frames of the carnival, try to see the faces of the guests sitting in separate lodges in the front row of Sambodrom. Tell them mentally thanks for the most famous holiday in the world! And for everything else, sooner or later they will answer before the court.