Today’s post is 1950 words, 48 photos, 1 video, a 9 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

This week I begin a long series of posts about our time in Brazil in late May and early June this year. Our first stop is Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil with nearly 14 million people in the metro area. Here, I’ll take you to Copacabana Beach and walking tour of a farmers market in Ipanema.

Thanks for the views and comments on my two-part series from Door County. If you missed those post, click here and here.

The Trail to Rio

It was Wednesday afternoon May 21 when we boarded a Delta flight from Madison to Atlanta where we would catch an overnight flight to Rio de Janeiro.

While we were waiting for the flight to Rio to depart, a couple of interesting things happened. The fellow that was announcing the flight pumped up the crowd to get them excited for the nine hour 17 minute flight. It was loud and boisterous, passengers were ready for some fun. Shortly after the announcement, there was emergency alert with everyone told to wait for instructions. Then nothing, no further announcements. We boarded the plane and off we went, leaving Atlanta behind.

We were going to Brazil on a Friendship Force journey to two clubs, one in Belo Horizonte in south central Brazil and the other in Belém in northern Brazil near the Amazon. Before the journey, we would explore Rio for three days and spend a couple of days at Iguazu Falls near the border of Argentina.

The overnight flight was uneventful, we arrived in Rio at 10 AM. The mile walk (at least it seemed that far) to passport control and customs helped to get the blood flowing and ready to experience the city. A chartered van was waiting to transport us (there were six Madison Friendship Force Ambassadors on this leg of the journey) to the hotel, about an hour drive from the airport. We stayed at the Rio Othon Palace right across the street from the famous Copacabana Beach.

While we were waiting to check in, the front desk clerk offered an upgrade for a sea side room. In an unusual move, I instantly took the offer and paid the extra $50 per night. It was so worth it. We were on the 17th floor and this was the view from our room.

After freshening up after our long flight, we met up with the others and found a lunch place near the hotel. It hit the spot. After buying some bottled water (we were advised not to drink the tap water only bottled or filtered water) and dropping it off in our room, my Traveling Partner and I walked along the beach area. There was marketplace that marketed primarily to tourists. If you forgot your swimsuit this was the place to check out!

As we were walking along, I noticed these two signs. The top sign advertised tours but they also rented bike and had a laundromat. Go figure. The second sign is for dental implants. At first, I thought it was for someone who is sinning by talking. Portuguese is an interesting language.

We were walking along the promenade next to the beach when we came across this elaborate sand sculpture. As we’re about to take a photo, a fellow sitting in a lawn chair near by called out to us in Portuguese. We weren’t sure but we thought he was asking for money. Just in time, Tania appeared. She’s the woman in the photo below. Tania, who spoke near perfect English told us that for a few Brazilian Reals we could take a photo. The fellow in the chair makes his living by creating the sculpture and accepting donations in exchange for taking photos. He appeared to be somewhat disabled so it’s a way for him to live. Anyway, Tania was delightful. She was born and raised in Brazil but has lived the last 45 years in the UK. She offered us some suggestions for our time in Brazil. We talked with Tania for at least 15 minutes. Then she took a photo of us at the sculpture after we paid the man.

I should mention that just a few weeks before we arrived in Rio, Lady Gaga drew an estimated 2.5 million people to Copacabana Beach for a free concert. From all reports, it was an awesome experience.

Before going to bed, we were entertained by fireworks on the beach.

On Tour with Leyla

After a good sleep (9 hours for me) and a light hotel breakfast, three of us met Neyla and her driver Mauricio for a 3-4 hour food tour at the Ipanema Farmers Market. Yes, it’s the same part of Rio in the song “The Girl from Ipanema” that was popular in the early 1960s. First written in Portuguese, it was translated to English and made the charts in the US and UK at a time when the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, and other groups were very popular. In fact, the B-side of the single record was Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind.”

But I digress. I hired Neyla through Tours by Locals. She is a former flight attendant, an accredited international tour guide, and a dual-citizen of Italy.

Neyla met us at the hotel and the driver, Maurico, delivered us to the farmers market located in Square Nossa Senhora da Paz.

After passing the garbage truck, we entered a world of delicious fruits, vegetables, teas, granolas, fish, meat, and prepared foods. There was so much to look at and it was so beautifully displayed.

This was our first stop. Many of the vendors knew Neyla and were quick to respond when she asked to sample some fruits. We recognized many of the fruits like oranges, apples, papaya, mango, grapes, pears, strawberries, and blueberries, but others were new to us.

Take for example, the fruit graviola, also known as soursop. With a spiny exterior, it opens up to reveal a white, creamy interior that tastes sweet with a sour overtone. It is delicious.

This young woman offered us a taste of graviola. She wielded that knife with great authority. This is one of my favorite photos from our tour. Maybe she’s “The New Girl from Ipanema!”

Neyla is holding caju also known as the cashew fruit. The fruit itself is highly perishable and used mostly in jams or cooked dishes. It has a sweet, nutty taste. The cashew nut after processing finds its way to places around the world.

This sign is offering papaya 3 for R$10 (less than $2 US dollars) or R$5 (about $.090 USD). To us this was cheap but with the average annual income of Brazilians at R$40,200 or about $7025 USD, for them its moderately expensive.

As we walked through the market, we noticed there were a few homeless people sleeping in the plaza. There are some areas of poverty in every major Brazilian city.

This vendor offered us a taste of this melon. It was sweet and delicious.

This fruit is known as caqui in Brazil, the English name for it is persimmon, This is the star variety. It’s my favorite with a sweet with a hint of brown sugar and chocolate. At our second host family, I had this almost every morning for breakfast.

There were vendors offering sugar and different types of flour.

Brazilians love cheese and has a robust cheese making industry. This vendor offered several types of cheese including shredded cheese in small bags.

Meet Alexa. She mixing up a special blend of tea for me to taste. I was offered a sip through the steel straw in the wooden cup. I went for it even though I was hesitant not knowing who had sipped before me. According to Neyla, sharing the cup is quite common in Brazil. Ok, I’m still hesitant from an infection control perspective. I did buy some granola from Alexa, it was tasty.

This vendor is bagging up some fresh shrimp for a customer. There were several fish mongers at the market, all displaying fresh caught fish.

In addition to chicken eggs, this vendor is selling quail eggs. These are common and widely found in Brazil as it’s one of the largest producer of quail eggs in the world. They appear in a variety of traditional dishes and snacks. There is a popular myth that quail eggs have aphrodisiac qualities, that may account for their popularity.

We were enamored by the many spices available in the market. Brazilian foods are not intensely spicy but spices are used to enhance the flavor.

This man was selling spices by weight. He was very gentle and explained what he had that was translated by Neyla.

This is a photo of the poultry seller at work. Amazingly, there were very few flies buzzing around.

Here’s a photo of a booth with many varieties of peppers and ginger.

This display of papaya begged for a photo.

Neyla is holding an avocado! They are huge, much bigger than those we see in our stores.

A beautiful display of corn.

These two fellas are selling berries (rasp and blue) two for R$5 or about $1 USD.

There were a couple of plant vendors in the market selling mostly house plants. The climate is mild year around so many of these plants are found on porches or balconies.

Watermelons are grown year-round and are a very popular fruit in Brazil. 

This fella was cleaning sardines. It didn’t take him long to cut and gut the small fish.

I know this root as cassava. In Brazil it goes mainly by mandioca, there are regional differences. This starchy root is native to South America and was introduced to Africa by Brazilians. Cassava is now found in many dishes around the world.

One of the products made from cassava is tapioca. This is very popular in Brazil. At the market there was a concession selling tapioca with a variety of toppings. Below is the menu and the second photo shows the long line of customers either waiting to order or for their food delivered.

I did catch a little of the cooking process. Each of the pans are an order of tapioca. The cooks were kept very busy moving from pan to pan, adding ingredients at the right time. They were fun to watch.

This food vendor is deep frying pastels, a popular Brazilian fast-food that can be made with various fillings such as cheese, chicken, shrimp, banana, guava, or chocolate. 

At one of the booths, I tried a sample of cold, fresh cane juice. Very tasty and refreshing.

We were across the street at a food stand that was selling cold drinks made with açai (pronounced ah sigh e) when a rain shower began. Açaí is a small black or purplish berry that grows on a South American palm tree. It’s used in beverages, ice creams, and açai bowls that are popular health foods. In a future post, you’ll see a video of how açai is harvested in the Amazon region.

I had my açai smoothie with granola. I have to say it’s an acquired taste, during my two plus weeks in Brazil, I began to like it even more.

The rain and time ended our tour of the farmers market. I’ll end this blog with the five sense plus one.

See – a feast for the eyes, the colorful fresh fruit, it all looked so delicious. Saw the sea from our hotel room. .

Hear – vendors speaking in Portuguese, calling out to customers, greeting old friends, the honking of horn, the sound of traffic. Heard fireworks.

Smell – the fish, the sweet smell of bananas and another fruits

Touch – the skin of the soursop

Tasted – mango, oranges, banana, paypal, passion fruit, atamoia, persimmon, açai smoothy, cane juice, fresh herbal tea, and many others

Learned – how to say thank you in Portuguese, obrigado. Brazilians are kind and welcoming. Most have a smile on their face. They like to have a good time.

Until next week, happy travels!

Tom

PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM