10/4 – Rio Driving #4 - Unavoidable risks and impressive horses.

Brazil seems to be positioned in a special gap of the laws of nature…ah well…perhaps not that serious, but almost. Ever since you sat behind the steering wheel the very first time, you’ve been brain washed with the blind spot area and how important it is to turn your head to check that there are no cars, motorbikes, bicycles, wheel chairs, horses, aliens or anything at all hiding in the blind spot area. There was no way you would get your driver license without clearly turning your head (after checking the mirrors of course) to show the examiner that you did check the blind sport area, every single time, before every single turn or sideway movement.

However, this is not the case in Brazil. After numerous rides with different Brazilians, a friend of mine decided to do his own little survey on the subject. During the some 10 months he’d spent in the country back then; he’d never seen a single one turning his head. He started to ask everyone he went along with in the car, if they’d ever heard about the, in Europe so common, phenomena of the blind spot area. To his surprise, they all knew about it. According to the Cariocas, of course there could be something or someone in the blind spot area, but there’s not much you can do about it. It’s just one of those risks with driving which you have to accept in life. On the question if they’d ever considered turning their heads to have a look in the secret corner, to possibly reduce the number of scratches and dents on their cars, the replies where short and sweet: No, you don’t do that.
If I’m ever allowed behind the steering wheel of a vehicle in this country, I think I’ll stick to the Scandinavian version

One thing (and probably the only one) from Brazilian road ethics I’d be more than happy to bring back home is their training of horses. Imagine to have such traffic safe horses at home, no more throwing little riding school girls off or kicking people in the ribs so they end up in the ditch, just because a car drives by or a runner happen to be out for her jog. One of the key tactics when driving in Brazil, is to use the horn as often as possible, including when you see someone you know somewhere within a 350 m radius of the car. Including your mates who might be riding along on horses. The pages in the Swedish driving theory books about when (not) to use the horn, would be ripped out right away over here. Thought my heartbeat was going to reach unexplored levels when the first car passed us on that horseback riding tour in Paraty. Since everyone seemed to know João, our guide, they all had to say hi, with their horns. After the fifth car had passed, within the first 8 minutes or so on the horse, I started to calm down though. There was no way in this universe that the horses were going to even blink because of those cars using their horns and people shouting out their hellos. Barking dogs, loose cows, kids on bikes and stupid tourists, who don’t know how to ride a horse, kicking them in the side had the exact same effect – i.e. none.