| Day12.com
January 2009 |
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| No,
you can't see the bloody photos! |
|
Tracy Sells
had her camera nicked in
Rio de
Janeiro.
This is, for sure,
the land of the beautiful! Toned,
bronzed bodies up to all sorts along a stretch of beach, from walking
the dog to performing Capoeira.
This is
Ipanema - it's all about showing the world you can wear a fio dental
(those tiny, tiny thongs) and look good in it'! The
weather's hot but perfect for a wander to Copacabana
and the refreshing sprays of water mist from the billboards along
the esplanade are an absolute necessity for cooling down! The
people are friendly, open and free-spirited and the coconut's freshly
cut and served all along the beach - life is good.
On the beach the
people are crying out to be photographed, pull out a camera and
play stops, they pose, flash the biggest smiles and play continues.
Now, this is the
shot I want.
Irresistible - from a purely artistic viewpoint! Out
comes the camera.
Aim, focus . .
. perfect. One
more. Aim,
focus. . .
|
| I
swing round to see a young guy on a bike cycling away from me, my
camera in his hand. The
realisation of what's just happened kicks in and
I'm after him. Of
course even if I were
athletic, I'm
never going to catch a guy on a bike, and this is Brazil
after all, where chasing anyone who's just mugged you really isn't
the best idea! Another
excellent reason why not to try it can be summarised in two words;
'flip-flops' and 'bikini'! |
This would have been a
pic of Ipanema
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|
In terms of embarrassing
moments, the scene can only really be likened to Bridget
Jones running through
the streets of London
in her drawers in hot pursuit of Mark
Darcy. But
I don't care -
I shout and run like my life depends
on it. It's
not about the camera so much (it's insured) but watching around
500 pictures disappearing (snapped from around the world over the
last few months) spurs me on. At
the time, the bargain priced 1GB
memory card seemed like such a great find in
Hong Kong,
and of course it would have been had I
had the chance to upload the contents!.
Despite the spectacle,
at 1 pm, in front of a very crowded strip of the beach, not one
person bats an eyelid, turns to see what is happening or tries to
help. This
is, it seems, the norm and I'm just another ignorant tourist flashing
an expensive piece of equipment in the face of many with next to
nothing. Sometimes
as backpackers, that's the impression we create, however unintentionally.
This sudden return
to reality is just the beginning and the experience with the police
is a drama in itself. The
local police station call for the 'tourist police' who kindly collect
us and drive us to the station (only to ask for money from us later).
At least dealing
with the report should be simple enough - these are tourist police!
Well, that's
unfortunately just the theory. The
station is very full.
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