So Rio de Janeiro was pretty awesome. It really is a beautiful city, I feel so lucky I got to go there.
When I woke up in the morning I went to the farmers market with Matteus and "Neyumi" (hahha I have no idea how to spell it)all I know is she made really good food. She made shrimp with this yummy sauce that had coconut milk in it. The market is a Portuguese tradition. That is what my host aunt told me. All the food is fresh. There was a lot of fish. Obviously because Rio is surrounded by ocean. This was such a delight for Matteus, considering seafood is not his personal favourite.
Mamãe pointed out some "lula" (squid), which is funny because the President of Brazil is "President Lula". So his name is kinda like, "President Squid". I think he is a pretty cool guy though, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.
I let them try a cherry because Brazil doesn't really have fresh cherries!! That is the second thing I found out that Brazil has to import (or doesn't have much of). The first being blueberries. I had to describe them and there really isn't any other way than, "hmmmm....berries that are...blue" lol.
We went to buy some chicken and I learned the lovely fact that one of the dishes of Rio is "chicken feet". I thought about this as I carefully watched the man chopping off the toenails of each foot...thankful that we were buying chicken breast.
My host Aunt drove us around showing us the different parts of the city, and the different beaches. Unfortunately we had dragged the rain with us from Paracatu so we didn't actually go to any of the beaches. Looking at them was enough though. They are so beautiful. And at night the sound of the waves hitting the shore is just like music. And you know how I love music.
We went to eat some "keebee" at night. We walked from the car to the restaurant. My aunt told me that in a city like Rio, you just have to walk with a purpose, and then you will be fine. Because it can be pretty dangerous, being a tourist city and all. I had to get special permission just to go there. But of course all went well and I was safe.
I went to the top of "Sugarloaf Mountain" that is what most of the pictures are of. It is the perfect spot to see the whole city, and I could see the statue of Jesus very well as well. And of course the beach "Copacabana". So I kept singing that song, "her name was Lola, with yellow flowers in her hair and a dress cut down to there." The beach was really famous in like the sixties. I thought it was cool because when we went to watch a Brazilian movie at the theatre "Se Eu Fosse Você 2" because it was filmed in Rio. It was about a married couple who traded bodies and had to find out how to change back. It was really funny.
I went to this beach called "Leblon" which is where most of the famous soap stars live in Brazil. So that was pretty cool as well, especially since I was following one soap opera called "Afavorita". I also watched "Maysa" which was a show about a Brazilian singer/songwriter who lived in the sixties (I think). She reminded me of a mix between Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland. It was also filmed in Rio.
One day we went with my host cousin to my other host cousin's apartment. She is pregnant with a baby girl she will name "Camilla". I played some music for them with Matteus on the guitar. Their apartment was really pretty and it backs onto the beach. You can hear the waves crashing from inside!
Carol and Matteus wanted to go to this human body exhibit that has (obviously) human bodies. They are preserved and show different systems like the nervous system etc. They probably wanted to see it because they both want to be doctors. I remember when this exhibit came to Calgary and my brother wanted to go but we never did, and then when I went to Germany the exhibit happened to come there at the same time and my sister and brother wanted to go then too. We never did. Then in Rio de Janeiro I managed to escape going to it for a third time lol. I'm sorry but I can't help but be a little hesitant in going to see real corpses on display. Lol. But whatever floats your boat. Instead of going to the exhibit we went to "Sugar Loaf Mountain" which was named because Brazil used to be like the largest export of sugar and back then they exported it dark (brown sugar) without being refined yet. So the mountain resembles a big lump of sugar.
I also learned that Rio de Janeiro (River of January)was discovered in January and they first thought it was a river.
Anyway, it was really nice to have gone there. There were all these huge trees with vines and flowers along the streets and the sound of tropical birds singing. There were also lots of orchids growing off of the trees. At night people walked around the streets just like it was the daytime. I also went to a large shopping mall. The inside looks alot like a mall in Canada would.The only thing was the escalator only started once you stood in front of it. HAhah it was cool. We were also going to go see a show but the tickets were sold out or something. We never went to the top of the cliff to see the statue of Jesus because it was raining but I managed to zoom in and film him pretty close up so that is good.
