Santa Cruz Kite Festival - Part 1 (The Kites)

Santa Cruz is the westernmost periphery of Rio de Janeiro. The neighborhoods of this area are still home to many cultural activities considered anathema in the more urbane center of Rio, such as paper balloon launches and kite festivals. The art of hot air ballooning is now illegal, and many of its practicioners find the legal kite festivals to be a safer artistic output - one that does not involve risk of jail time.

While illegal, many of such balloons abound in this area, and one can see plenty of then on any given Sunday morning. Ironically, before these artistic paper balloons dominated the Santa Cruz airspace, this was the territory of German airships. Throughout the 1930's, the Aerodromo Santa Cruz was the final destination for German Zeppelins flying the Berlin-Rio de Janeiro route - now only the paper balloons and kites of the local residents are present.

In the above picture, two kites battle. Their lines are covered with cerol, a powdered glass and glue combination that makes their lines sharp. With the right dive around the other kite, the line is cut.

Cerol has caused a serious side effect - the death of many bikers. The lines of fallen kites get snagged onto motorcyclists' necks, cutting and bleeding them to death. This has led to a particular adaptation, the installation of antennas to catch the lines before they hit the motorcyclist's neck.

Another variant of the cerol bites back at the kite flyers - sometimes they use metal shavings rather than powdered glass in the mixture, which has the result of making the kite line very conductive when it hits electric transmission lines ....