Rio, where two worlds collide

Getting your way around in Rio is an exhausting experience in itself. Here people hardly speak English, which makes your job of getting to settle in an unknown place all the more demanding. The four Olympic venues have been set up at four corners of the city, meaning that one needs to keep some time as cushion to get to the desired destination.

The Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium in Engenhao, for example, is just about 26 kilometres from Copacabana. This distance should ideally not be a big deal to traverse in these parts of the world. But it could turn out to be a nightmare if one takes the regular bus route or a taxi to get there, because the peak hour rush is unbearable at times and could leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. So what you do to avoid getting stranded is try to find the less-fancied options -- metros and trains in this case.

If one can get to the subway and get out of it halfway through and walk around 100 metres to board a train -- the subway does not lead to the Olympic Stadium, rather it goes through a different route touching the Maracana -- the exhausting trip could be cut short to a matter of less than an hour and turned into a an eye-opening experience.

The southern part of Rio, where the Copacabana and Ipenama beaches are located, is also the south-eastern tip of Brazil. Beyond this are the blue waters of the Atlantic. The more you move towards the north, the more rugged the terrains become and the sunny climes give way to more oppressive elements of nature. As the trains snake their way out of the planes and past the mountains, one is exposed to the harsh realities of life. Each of the hillocks is home to thousands of households, with flimsy single-storey concrete structures steeped on the slope leaning against each other.

The people from the plains hardly ever go up the mountains in fear for their lives, but they do get services from those that come down to the plains in search of a living. They serve the dinner tables at restaurants and cafeterias; they work at street circus shows; they wipe the floors at posh apartment complexes and they sell themselves at midnight. The two worlds collide in Rio.