This was surely a haunting place. I had ridden by it once already a few days earlier and got a pretty creepy feeling, but to be in the park where its walls once stood, to see the corner columns of the cells, and to step on the same concrete floor where so many died was definitely eerie. It was hard to me to spot the place at first because they have let plants grow thick and have it fenced in pretty well. But when I walked a little further, I saw the old guard towers and a big building with lots of broken glass that looked like it may have held inmates.
I kept walking, thinking I would eventually get somewhere, but all I kept seeing was old guard towers and huge, bare and intimidating concrete prison walls.
I came to a little park and since I knew a huge chunk of Carandirú once stood here, I decided to walk through.
One thing to remember is that nowhere did it say I was not allowed to take pictures. I walked through the park and by now had already taken a few pictures. The park was beautiful and very modern with a lot of basketball courts, a few small soccer fields, and a lot of walking paths.
I came to a section that was very haunting. Right at the end of this park, in between the two sections of the prison still standing was a little bridge surrounded by trees and other plants and flowers. Normally, this would be pretty nice, but what these plants were covering was the haunting part.
Still standing from the implosion and incorporated into a part of the park were the prison cellblock floors and the concrete corner posts with rebar sticking out of the top.
I got to see how small the cells were and how cold and bare the concrete floors were. I couldn’t help but imagine how many people had come here for imprisonment. Likely many wrongly convicted, some who may have been killed inside this very area I was standing in.
As I walked through in my head I could almost hear the screams of the prisoners and the gunshots during the slaughter. Nevertheless, I took about 30 minutes to walk through something that could have easily taken two minutes. I stepped out to take a picture of the entrance and from a huge prison wall a man yelled down that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I already had a few from outside the park and a few from inside. I also wanted to know why a torn down and imploded prison still had guards posted like this. Either way, I walked through the thing and took a few pictures anyway because I figured, what the hell, I’m only in Brazil once (until I come back, that is).
After that, I went up to one of the guards at the front of the park and asked him about actually going into the prison to see it, take a few pictures, and write a few observations down. He told me that the guy I had to talk to was in a meeting (I won’t forget your name, Roberto), but if I left my name, address, and institution (I said UFPR and WSSU for the intelligence factor), and come back the following day. I told him I was leaving for Salvador that evening but could always take a flight to São Paulo from Curitiba since it’s only a 45 minute flight and about R$95 one way. I will definitely be back through to see the prison. Haunting as it may be, it’s something I definitely want to visit and experience.
So that 13 pages in my journal was about 6 ½ pages typed. I promise all of this boring stuff no one wants to read will be accompanied with many nice pictures. Stay tuned! BTW for everyone concerned about my health, I took about a 5 hour nap. I'm refreshed but as soon as I'm done with this post and one email I'm off to bed.
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