A day at the beach, farofeiro style!

For me, spending a sunny day on the beach is one of the great pleasures of life in Rio. I’m not one of those people who wants to spend their holidays slavishly tanning from 10 in the morning until the sun goes down, but a day at the beach in Rio can be whatever you want it to be. Some people go to exercise (jogging, volleyball, futevôlei, etc), others go to socialise, relax and watch the world go by (I fall into this second category).

The end of a long, relaxing day on Ipanema beach.

I’ve always thought that a day out at the beach is pretty good value for money. If you want to hire a chair and/or umbrella for the day it will cost you just R$5 ($2.50) per item. Snacks, beers and other cold drinks will also cost around the R$5 mark, meaning that two people can enjoy a full day on the beach for R$50 ($25). Not a bad when you compare it to the cost of restaurants, taxis and the like.

But what if you earn minimum wage (R$678/month) or you’re trying to save money?

Bring your own chair

If you happen to find yourself on any street in Rio within 3 blocks of the beach on a sunny day, there’s a good chance you’ll see people carrying their own folding chairs to/from the sand. When I first got to Rio I was rather surprised to see this – I wondered whether it was really worth the hassle of taking a chair to the beach and back for the sake of just R$5? With an attitude like that you can see why I never made it rich!

Of course if you live a long way from the beach and only visit occasionally then it probably isn’t worth it, but for regular beach-goers, the purchase of a R$30 folding chair makes a lot of sense. I was amused to see that some tourists from the US actually made headlines last year when they brought folding chairs that doubled as rucksacks to the beach.

From the O Globo article, this is the Scott family in Ipanema with their backpack-chairs.

I wondered if the notoriously nasty O Globo reader comments would be full of resentment for tourists visiting Rio and then finding such an inventive way to save money, but in fact the general reaction seemed to be positive, with several people asking where they could buy these chairs for themselves.

Of course once the frugal beach-goer has taken care of their seating arrangements, they’ll need to think about the food and drink situation…

Piquenique or Farofeiro?

Back in the UK, we think of a picnic is an idyllic day out – a soft-focus image of picnic hampers and home-made lemonade, cucumber sandwiches, champagne and smoked salmon. That is the idea of a picnic. The reality of a picnic is often quite different, with bad traffic, wasps and the British weather conspiring to ruin the perfect day out. But still, we cling to our rose-tinted ideal and keep dreaming the perfect picnic dream!

In Brazil, the word Piquenique seems to have similar sophisticated connotations – some nice little sandwiches, maybe some wine and Parma ham enjoyed in a park. But what if you decide to take your own food to the beach? Well then you may be labelled a farofeiro.

The farofeiro is a pejorative stereotype of a working class family bringing rice, beans a roast chicken and farofa (hence the name) to the beach and possibly even having a barbecue. The stereotype holds that farofeiros will be loud, inconsiderate and leave lots of rubbish when they leave.

This strikes me as rather snobbish. I am lazy and enjoy buying things from the vendors on the beach, but I also like picnics! Last weekend we took a couple of bottles of wine and a cool-bag full of ice to the beach and we had a great time, so you can call me a farofeiro if you like! We spent the same amount of money that we would have spent on beer from the vendors and enjoyed delicious chilled wine for a change.

Yum! Pass the farofa! Just remember to take all your rubbish home afterwards.

Total democracy on the beach

Since we’re talking about this rich-poor divide in beach culture, I thought I’d finish off with a positive note. This video went around earlier this year and has some beautiful, evocative images of Rio, but the thing that gets me every time is when I hear the phrase “total democracy on the beach”. Maybe it isn’t strictly true, but if you’re talking about democracy in Rio, the beach is as close as you get.