Transvestites and Ipanema..Day 5

I think the research is going to be more complicated than I thought. A research method seems almost impossible at this point. It will have to be just a paper.

According to my book, there are around 2000-2500 transvestite workers in Rio, mostly in Lapa (a young person's hangout), Copacabana, and el Centro. Eighty percent of transvestis in Rio have HIV/AIDS and also do drugs,mostly cocaine. The typical worker makes an equivalent of $400 U.S. dollars a month and has an average of one client a night, a job paying on par of that of a local part-time clerk. The typical worker has over seventy punture wounds as a result of silicone injections to shape their bodies and breasts. The injections are made by older transvestis who are too old to work.

Ipanema. The beach. Ipanema. The beach.....

Ipanema, specifically post 9 and farme is where barbies (muscled men) hang out to work out, show off, and tan. The locality makes it a hotspot for families, local celebrities, international tourists, and gays to congregate. The girl from Ipanema was made famous here. Calvin Klein has his favorite hangout here.

Besides the beach, the other wonder I've found is the succos, or juices. I grew up eating half a watermelon during the summers since I was two. No joke. Here, it's juice heaven. I had acai, a dark anti-oxident enhanced drink for breakfast, a kiwi joice for brunch, and tangerine juice after my soccer match. Exotic drinks are the norm and milk is rare.

I met a local Korean American from New York. He's a derivitive investor opening a startup with some friends. We make an appointment to play volleyball tomorrow evening. The main Asian groups here are Japanese and Chinese. Thus, to the cariocas, I am either a Japanese or Chinese!

I'll visit my research site tomorrow downtown and try to mingle with the locals as much as I can.

The G20 summit is Tuesday. America, China, Russia and the other powers need to fork it over to the IMF. It's really the last chance for America to try to fix this, as well as the other superpowers. If not, protectionist tariffs are definitiely going up and the poorest countries will suffer the most. We'll see how it plays out during the next few days....