Leme Beach

Well today is almost over.  This morning before breakfast we walked to Leme beach.  Which is around 15 minutes walk from Babilonia.  The alleyways of the Favela were coming alive; with mothers taking their children down to the waiting school buses.  Others are going to work in the city or on the coast.  All like us taking a bag of refuse down to the skip that is bought daily to remove rubbish.  Several men are sorting, collecting and sweeping away the unsavoury remains.

We walk along the water’s edge to Copacabana beach.  The sand was soft and pale gold, exactly as we see in the holiday brochures.  Golden bodies paraded the length and breadth of the beach enjoying the warm breeze and rising sun.

We posed as regular tourists.  But, I glanced back beyond the Copacabana Palace; a very grand hotel that entertained the likes of Mick Jagger and Madonna.    Peeping through was Babilonia demanding attention from the rich and famous and not so!

As we returned at 9 o’clock the day was well underway for the engineers and the local workforce who work unceasingly it seems in very uncertain situations.  For example there are men down deep holes for drains.  Towards us come 15 men struggling with a 25 metre steel girder up many steep steps to reinforce the mountain side and increase the safety of the precarious homes below.