By Silke and Michiel,
After a short night we started the favela with one man down. The tour was trough the favela “Rocinha” with 75,000 inhabitants located at the west side of Rio de Janeiro. The favela is famous for its criminality, in which drug dealers and militias are no exception. We were only allowed to make pictures on “safe” places when the tour guide said so, to prevent that we would end the tour with even less persons. Although we spotted some individuals with a (machine)gun, varying of age starting from 12 years, we got the feeling it was a staged set-up. This, however, was beneficial to the tension and sensation. In addition, the environmental status of the favela wasn’t ideal. For example the open sewers with lots of pests. Riccardo and Stijn thought it was necessary to make the tour even more realistic by wearing flip-flops, which they regretted in hindsight. In their opinion this fell under the category “poor life decisions”.
After the favela tour was finished, there was measurement and free time. For example the group of acoustics who measured the sound pressure levels and mapped this for different locations in the city. By using in-ear microphones (binaural) and an action camera (GoPro) the sound experience of the city is recorded. Another group has measured the air quality in the hostel, with the outdoor air as reference, for a whole set of parameters such as particulates, temperature, air speed etc. In addition to that an analysis is made of the HVAC system. The groups who didn’t perform measurements went to the Copa Cabana to enjoy the last sunrays.
After the study related activities had taken place it was time for a cozy evening. We went to a tapas restaurant named “Meza Bar” at which we ate outside on the curb on tiny stools and consumed diner. After that we continued calmly: most wanted to get a good night sleep after the amazing evening of yesterday. Riccardo & Joshua (winners) and Tom & Giel (runners-up) have uphold the Dutch honor on an international beerpong contest, which was a suiting closing of the evening of an exciting day.
