Rio

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"?Rio, de Janeiro, ?Riohohohoho, ?land of sun, samba and wine" - top 3 hit from Maywood, a Dutch pop duo in the 70's. Poor things apparently didn't know that Rio was a city, not a country. And that it's so much more than just sun, samba and wine. We think it's more 'city of beaches, Cristo and beer'. The beaches obviously being Copacabana and Ipanema.

Seriously though, Rio was a very positive surprise to us. Yes, the two world famous beaches are a big part of the Cariocas' (people from Rio) lives, but the neighbourhoods by the same name are very pleasant as well. Especially Ipanema, where we stayed, was quite nice and safe. We felt the whole city was actually quite safe, nothing like the stories you hear.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite the 'beachy type' and we didn't spend a lot of time sunbathing. Nor did we do a bicycle tour that we had booked, as it was raining that morning (as well as most other days). However, as mentioned earlier, there's more to the city and we did quite some exploring of several other interesting neighbourhoods and sights. One being a new museum. The same Spanish architect who designed the harbour bridge in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires (Calatrava), designed the Museu do Amanha (Museum of Tomorrow). It's a science museum, that we unfortunately didn't see from the inside, as we got there at 10 and it only opened at 12 and there was already line of approximately 1 kilometer.

We also did a 'food tour', which was amazing. Basically we went sightseeing on foot in different parts of the city for 6 hours, while eating typical foods in local restaurants and cafe's and tasting them at local markets. The guide Angela, an Aussie who married a Brazilian guy several years ago and who's been living in Rio for over 3 years, was great, as were the other tourists: a French couple who live/work in French Guinea and a Finnish couple. That's one of the really nice things about this sabbatical - you meet new people everywhere. Mostly nice, not always as much and sometimes very stereotypical (as was the case with the Finns - man, they can drink!).

One other great activity we did was take a cooking class (yes, another one). The chef, Simone (to be pronounced 'c-money') was so much fun! A former hippie and world traveler from Rio, now settled down in her home town. Not only was she a great cook, but she told the most funny stories! We cooked a traditional fish stew (moqueca), made 2 Brazilian cocktails (one of which now is my new favourite drink - passion fruit caipirinha), a great side dish of tapioca/banana and a lovely desert of sweet pineapple and cinnamon. Tapioca, by the way, is a starch extracted from cassava root t's texture being similar to 'griesmeel'), which Brazilians seem to use in/with everything (like meat, beans, bananas, pancakes and ice cream).

So far, we really like the food in Brazil. It's very tasty and more diverse than in Argentine, where it's mostly grilled meat (which, by the way is the best meat in the world). The downside is that they fry everything. Well maybe not everything, but a lot, even empanadas and sushi! Brazilians also appear to be eating throughout the whole day, so at some point we really need to start exercising again! At least they sell freshly made fruit juices at every street corner, so we feel somewhat healthy.

From Rio we travelled further North to Salvador and currently we're in National Park 'Chapada Diamantina'. Another blog will follow when we return to 'civilization'.

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