Saturday June 14, 2014, Pleasant Hill,CA CA: Mary Mackey talks about “How To Travel Like A Writer.” The Mt. Diablo Branch of the California Writers Club has invited Mary to speak to them about how traveling like a writer can make trips more interesting and exciting. She will address topics such as “How Travel Can Give You Ideas,” and “Why You Photos of Paris Will Be Like No One Else’s. TIME: 11:15 am (lunch); PLACE: Zio Fraedo’s Italian & Continental Restaurant, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523,(925) 933-9091,
How Dangerous is Rio?
How dangerous is Rio de Janeiro? In the United States, Rio has a reputation for being scarily violent despite its beautiful beaches, friendly people, and warm climate. I’ve been going to Rio for the past twenty-five years, and I can’t count the times people have said to me: “You’re going to Rio for six weeks? Are you crazy!”
So how dangerous is Rio? Well, in my experience, the level of violence isn’t that much worse than in many big American cities except in the slums (which the Brazilians call “favelas.”) Still, whether you’re headed to Carnival, the World Cup in Soccer, or the 2016 Olympics, there are some things you need to know in order to stay safe. I love the city. It features prominently in my poetry and novels, but there are hazards you might not anticipate.
Number One: Traffic. Rio has long had a reputation for violence, but in my 25 years of traveling to and living in Brazil, I’ve found that the number one danger in Rio is traffic. Buses run red lights at 30mph while there are people in the crosswalks; cars careen around blind corners at high speed; motorcycles come roaring down one-way streets the wrong way. Never cross a street without looking both ways more than once (I favor 4 times), and always assume that the vehicles coming toward you will not stop. Never stand in the street. Yes, you will see Brazilians doing it, but it’s their country and maybe they have special spirits protecting them. If you get into a cab, fasten your seat belt. Given the way the cab drivers dart between buses and trucks, you may also want to close your eyes. Rio’s cabbies make New York City cabbies look like ads for traffic safety. As for renting a car, I’ve never had the guts to try driving in Brazil, although my husband has on occasion. Note that outside the city, roads sometimes suddenly end in 2 foot deep pits that will blow all your tires. Don’t speed. Better yet, to stay safe in Rio, don’t drive.
Number Two: The Ocean. Rio has some of the world’s most beautiful and most famous beaches, but beware. The water is sometimes polluted and can give you nasty skin rashes (inquire locally). This rarely happens at Copacabana, but there the surf can be a real danger. The waves looks small, manageable, but they pack terrific force and the currents are vicious. I was once wading up to my knees in little waves, when a slightly larger one came in and knocked me off my feet so hard that the entire front *and back* of my left leg was purple with bruises for a week. I’ve known people who went in for a dip and were sucked out to sea. The waves also sometimes come to shore in a way that make it nearly impossible for you to get out of the water. My husband once nearly drowned about 10 feet off the beach. Yes, there are lifeguards. Yes, they are competent and dedicated, but you can get into trouble very fast. To stay safe in Rio, watch where the locals are swimming and follow their example.
Number Three: Robberies. It’s probably not news to you that tourists frequently get robbed in Rio, but there are some things you can do that will make it less likely that the victim of a robbery will be you. The basic strategy I follow is to look like a missionary who may want to collar you and tell you the Good News. Wear your older clothing and before you leave home, remove all jewelry that looks valuable. Take off your little gold earrings, your bracelets, even your wedding band if you can face not wearing it for a while. In the place of your valuable jewelry (and by valuable I mean anything that remotely looks valuable even if it is only worth $10), don costume jewelry. I have three seed necklaces and two cheap-looking silver rings that I always wear when I’m in Rio. I always make sure that I can get both of the the rings off my finger fast if someone asks me for them. I’ve heard stories of people getting their fingers cut off by robbers, but I think these are mythical. Still, better to be safe in Rio than sorry at the Emergency Ward of the local hospital. By the way, health care is pretty good in Brazil and they tend not to charge for drugs. Instead, they give them to you. As a Brazilian doctor once said to me: heath care is a human right.
How dangerous is Rio? Probably a 6 or 7 on a world scale of 10. Staying safe there isn’t all that hard, but you need to be alert.
Siri, Lead Me Not Into Obsession
Watching The Darkness Fall on Barrow, Alaska
Siri, lead me not into obsession. Ever since I set my recent short story “Fowl Play” in the fictional town of Nowhere, Alaska, I have been asking you to tell me when the sun rises and sets in the far north. Since you can’t find Nowhere on Google Maps (because it doesn’t exist) I’ve sent you off to Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the United States. Why Barrow? Simply because when Yvette, my six foot two lesbian detective, discovered half the citizens of Nowhere had been rubbed out while eating their Thanksgiving turkeys, I had her say: “We need to contact Barrow and tell them to fly a forensic team in here asap!”
I picked Barrow off a map without knowing anything about it, but oh the courage of the people who live there! For weeks, Siri has faithfully told me the times the good citizens of Barrow see the sun and the times they say goodbye to it each day, and it isn’t a pretty picture for someone like me who loves the tropics. In fact, the darkness that is slowly creeping over Barrow has become my own personal obsession, not to mention my own private horror movie.
At first is wasn’t too bad. They were getting seven hours or so of light a day in Barrow. I could live with that. But then, something unexpected started to happen. Like a black freight train rolling out of the north, darkness began to hit Barrow earlier and earlier. On November 14, sunrise was at 11:42 am, sunset at 2:35. On November 16, only two days later, the sun was coming up at 12:04 and going down at 2:14. That meant that if you sat down for a long lunch, you could miss the whole thing.
I knew that sooner or later there would be no sunrise or sunset at all in Barrow, but the speed of that change was more than I could get my mind around. With your help, Siri, I had learned that for about 65 days there would be endless night. When I think of Barrow dark for weeks at a time, and not only the Barrow but the vast expanses of frozen tundra surrounding it also cloaked in darkness, it makes me want to climb into bed and pull the covers over my head. I could never live through 65 days of perpetual darkness. Heck, I get cranky in sunny California on cloudy days. Light! Light! Give me light!
On November 21, I stumbled out of bed, grabbed my iPhone, and summoned Siri for perhaps the 60th time. I’d missed a few days, so when I called up Siri, I wasn’t ready for her response. “Siri,” I said, “when does the sunrise today in Barrow, Alaska?” As usual, Siri dithered around a bit and then said: “Sorry, there is no weather today in Barrow, Alaska.” Thinking she may not have understood me–frankly she’s not all that bright sometimes–I tried again and got the same answer.
“No weather”? What did that mean? Had Siri had a nervous breakdown? Had my internet connection turned on me? Or had the sun finally stopped shining in Barrow? It had risen and stayed up for about two hours only a week ago. As I tried again and again to persuade Siri to feed my obsession with new data, I thought about Yvette, trapped in Nowhere with a 24 murders to solve and no daylight to solve them in. I worried that she’d develop a bad case of Seasonal Affective Disorder and take to drink. Then I remembered two things: Yvette already drinks like a fish, and she’s a fictional character. So now I’m worried about the people in Barrow. How do they get up in the morning when there’s no real morning to get up to? How are they going to make it through the next 65 sunless days?
I tried asking Siri, but instead of helping , she offered to search the Internet for wheelbarrows.