Brazil’s Coca Cola Rivers

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Hello there. It might seem like I am typing this to you from my normal seat (you know, the one at the table in the dining room), but that is actually a cleverly constructed illusion. In reality I am miles away. In another state no less. That’s right, I am finally going to Minas Gerais, Brazil’s state of Cheese and Cachaça (that’s not the official state logo, those are just the two things I’m most excited about).

Though in reality, that is also a bit of an illusion (OK, let’s drop this ‘illusion’ talk, it’s a lie, a straight out lie). Because I am in my normal seat in the dining room as I type this, but using the power of delayed publishing (I set a time in the future for this post to be automatically published), when you read this I will be in Minas Gerais. Basically I’m going to be away from Computer-Land for a while, so I’m writing a post before I go away. Everyone clear on that? Great.

The plan is to spend the New Year holiday in Ibitipoca (sounds like i-bitchy-POCK-a). Ibitipoca, or more properly Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca, is a forest park created back in 1973 and covering 1,488 hectares. You have to buy a ticket to enter the park and the number of visitors is limited to 300 per day. You can camp (we will be) and apparently these numbers are limited also.

That’s a LOT of Coca Cola…

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British Christmas Food in Brazil (part 1)

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Yesterday I told you about my Véspera de Natal (Christmas Eve): food, drink and excitement in the form of Amigo Oculto.  Today I wanted to tell you about my Christmas day experience of a year ago (though in reality this will be a thinly disguised vehicle to allow me to boast about my self-proclaimed culinary prowess).

This time last year I had been in Rio for just 6 months and so my new family and I were still getting to know each other. Back in October of that year, my mother-in-law had casually asked about the traditional English foods. When I described Beef Wellington a strange look came over her face. I thought nothing more of it until a week before Christmas when another member of the family told me they were looking forward to trying my Beef Wellington on Christmas day! Ha ha, she had got me fully roped in! She reassured me that it would only be a few people, maybe 7 or 8 at the most, but by the end of Christmas Eve, more than 15 people had told me how curious they were about the meal I was cooking tomorrow. Oh great!

I get a bit annoyed when people tell me British food is bad. Sure you can find bad food in Britain, but great British food can hold its own against any other cuisine. The St John restaurants in London are a prime example. My full rant on this subject is at the bottom of the post…

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My (least?) favourite Brazilian Christmas Tradition

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Today is Boxing Day, 26th December, and in a few moments I will be going to work. This is not because there is some important project being implemented out of office hours, nor is it because I am involved in some special end-of-year accounting work. It is because 26th December is just another working day here in Brazil. I have been struggling to come to terms with this information for the past week or so.

Not what I think of as a typical Christmas scene… There are at least 3 idiosyncratic details in this shot – the bikini sales man to the mid-right; the skimpy sunga mid-left; the 65 year old woman with a 30 year old’s body and a skimpy bikini to match! 

 

But what I lose today on Boxing Day, I gained on Christmas Eve. Here in Brazil, it seems that Christmas Eve is as big, if not bigger, than Christmas Day itself. We spent the day lounging on the beach trying to stay cool in the stifling heat. But later on that evening we had The Big Family Event.

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Zombies of Brazil

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If I said ‘Zombie Nation’ you might think I’m talking about a crappy video game from 1990, a horrible techno song that (apparently) US college kids like to sing when their team does something good, or a movie so bad that one reviewer described it as “a monstrously absurd turd of a film”.

If, on the other hand, I mentioned Nação Zumbi, at least some of my readers would think of a Brazilian band who are most definitely not crappy! I was lucky enough to be taken to one of their performances a couple of days after I arrived in Rio and I have to say they were awesome. Their style is a fusion of rock, hip-hop and traditional Brazilian music with some serious drumming thrown in. If you get the chance, go see them, they’re a great band. When I went to see them, I misheard the translation of the band name and assumed it meant Zombie Nation. In fact it means Zumbi Nation – this is Zumbi: 

Zumbi also known as Zumbi dos Palmares. His story is fascinating, inspiring and tragic.

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Sleepy Consolation

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I’ve never been good at getting a good night’s sleep. It’s a cliché I know, but it really does apply to me: when I have to get up for work it’s a real struggle and then on weekends I seem to be unable to sleep past 7.30am… Well yesterday my body-clock decided to mix things up a bit.

I had a weird dream that my Dad and I were having a meal here in Brazil, but the chef was slightly posh and English (as is my Dad). The chef came over to ask how the food was and my Dad proceeded to detail all the ways in which it was sub-standard (this is quite realistic). An excruciatingly awkward silence descended on the restaurant after my father had delivered his verdict and at this point the social anxiety got to much for me  and I woke up with palpitations (you can tell I’m English right?).

Not exactly a life-changing trauma, but as I recovered I realised that I was now fully awake and it didn’t feel like I would get back to sleep. A glance at the clock told me it was just after 6am – a glance out of the window suggested it might be worth grabbing the camera!

How am I meant to go back to bed with this outside my window? In the centre of the frame you should just be able to make out an aeroplane on its approach to Santos Dumont Airport. (Herb fans will notice that the Oregano in the window-box is doing rather well)

 

I decided that now I was up I’d make some coffee, grab my camera and take a few snaps. I also put some laundry in the washing machine and felt the smug glow of someone who knows they have achieved several things before 7am – this was a novel experience for me…

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