Food in Brazil

We ate well in Brazil. It's not a hard thing to do as there were tempting treats around every corner. We have listed some of our finds below, starting with one of Brazil's best culinary assets, the suco or juice bar.So many juices are on offer here - cheap, unbelievably tasty and available on almost every street. Our most popular pick was strawberries in milk. We also enjoyed a nutritional bowl of Amazonian berry, acai a couple times. The acai is served very cold and often with granola and banana on top. Although it's sweet, it has a curiously earthy texture and flavour. You are unsure on the first mouthful but quickly grow to like it and a big bowl doesn't last long.

Pao de qeuijo is a cheesy, doughy bread ball. This one is particularly large. They are served as a snack everywhere.

A rodizio bufffet. First you help yourself to a wide selection of salads, pasta, rice, beans and stews and then a nice chap comes round offering you tasty morsels on meat. This restaurant in Sao Paulo was a bargain of a find at around £3.50 a head.

Rice, beans and floury farofa are an accompaniment to many a meal.

Brazilians serve their beer obsessively cold. SKOL lager may have disappeared from the English market but it is going strong in Brazil.

A fastfood chain here, Bob's, does a yummy scrummy milkshake of malt chocolate with honeycomb pieces. Rachel remembered them well and was pleased to try one again.

A fish stall in the market in Florianopolis. The yellow, slippery things at the front caught our eye, we believe they are fish roe from a pretty big fish. We didn't try them as we were about to get on a night bus and they look a bit grotty.
A cheap way to eat well at lunch time is in a a quilo or a peso restaurant. In other words, by weight. You choose from a buffet of salads, rice, beans and stew and then have it weighed. Simon struggled with this concept initially as he wanted to try everything and, as has often happened in the past with a Wilko's pick 'n' mix of sweets, the price soon tots up.
Free shots of coffee are available after a meal from a thermos flask. It's never great, but it was better here as also on offer was a generous splash of complimentary chocolate or cinnamon liquor.
Rachel and Hannah on the beach in Rio with one of Hannah's remembered favourites from her time here, Globos. They are curious rings of virtually nothing. The ones in the red pack taste vaguely sweet, and the green pack taste vaguely salty. They seem to be very popular and were the only food on sale at the football match at the Maracana, disappointingly.
A sweet banana and cinnamon pizza. It came with mozzarella, it came for pudding, it was soon gone. Thumbs up!
Guaraviton: Acai and Guarana juice drink. A very refreshing option on a hot day waiting for a ferry.
Count them up. That's eight varieties of bananas on display in the local greengrocer's in Rio. Bananatastic!
Coffees and a swiss flan - sponge cake topped with creme caramel - all served up in a beautiful, traditional coffee house in the heart of Rio's Centro.
That's a big avocado. Also a very tasty one. We were impressed and ate quite a few of them in Florianopolis.
A delicious and enormous fish meal for two at a beachside bar in Florianopolis. It's very common place for restaurants to have a whole menu of meals for 2 people to share. Tricky if you have different tastes.
A fizzy drink as popular as coke here - guarana. Very refreshing, it could be described as somewhere between a Schloer and Appletise with a hint of cola.

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls are the largest in the world in terms of volume of water. We had planned to miss out this natural wonder, which is so popular on the backpacker circuit, as it is miles from anywhere we were visiting - on the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. However, when we heard my friend Eileen had just got a job in Paraguay we decided to fit it in, travel 22 hours on a bus from Rio to Iguazu and then on into Paraguay. We are very glad we did. Although it's a bit of a hassle border hopping over two days, it was definitely worth it. The jury is out on whether the falls look better from the Brazilian side or the Argentinian side, so we chose to visit both.

The location is spectacular as the waterfalls are in the middle of a national forest. Brazil and Argentina have built good walkways and viewing platforms to get pretty close to the falls without feeling like you are in a theme park. The scale of the waterfalls is incredible - lots of powerful, dramatic falls stretching about a mile wide and a really mighty, horseshoe one called the Devil's Throat.

Our first look at the falls from the Brazilian side was rather underwhelming. We had heard that the water levels were low and actually thought that this might be as good as it was going to get.

However, we rounded a corner and saw this viewing platform facing the full force of the Devil's Throat part of the falls.

The Brazilian side is the best place to get an idea of the breadth of the waterfalls.

The spider was enjoying the view too.

There's plenty of wildlife in the forests around the waterfalls. We saw beautiful birds and a lots of these raccoon-type creatures. Here, the ring-tailed schnafflers are scavenging for food by the cafe on the Brazilian side.They were not impressed by Simon's offer of a dry leaf and chose to shuffle off indignantly. At one point we counted 30 of the creatures crossing the path just in front of us in a pack.

A picture from the Argentinian side which was more fun to explore, with its winding paths to secondary waterfalls like the ones above, its varied viewpoints and a short boat to an island.

Pretty rainbows in the mist when the sun came out.

The highlight of the visit was crossing raised walkways of half a mile to this raised viewing platform on the Argentinian side, right next to the drop at the Devil's Throat. When the wind blew in our direction we were soaked from the spray. To be so close to such an incredible force of water is something we'll never forget.

Iguazu Falls is a place where we felt truly awed by nature and the power of water.

Ilha Grande

Looking down to the village where we stayed on Ilha Grande
Ilha Grande is one of the most relaxing places imaginable to spend a few days. We took a bus south from Rio along the hilly, green coastline and a ferry across to the island, which has no cars.The mainland town from where we caught the ferry.

There were just enough tourists there to make it fun, plenty of locals, and after the first day, lots of sunshine.Our days began with delicious breakfasts which included a lot of watermelon, papaya and melon, and were followed by treks along little tracks up through unspoilt jungle to stretches of long beaches with lots of golden sand, great waves and few people.We passed lot of enormous bamboo on walks

We couldn't believe it when we turned a corner in the forest one day and came face to face with a large monkey swinging from a branch. We also spotted all sorts of parrots and shared our first breakfast with a small, wild monkey which showed up to mop up the crumbs.

A giant, metal drum on Lopes Mendes beach

The island had a political prison which was full during the Brazilian dictatorship and closed in the 1990s. Much of it was demolished but the remaining part is being turned into a museum.

A highlight for Simon would have to be the three sweet trolleys, full of puddings baked on the island each day and wheeled along the front each evening. He treated himself to something from them at least once a day. In his words, 'The sticky, creamy, fruity treats all lit up in a glass cabinet like precious objects were too good to resist.'

Pudding 1

Pudding 2

Pudding 3

Lopes Mendes beach. The waves were too big to go for a swim on this side of the island but paddling was lots of fun.

Although this is one of the main tourist places for people from Sao Paulo, Rio and travellers, it remains totally charming and a lovely place to visit.

Rodent in the park

This large, rat-like rodent can be found scampering around a central park in Rio. Fortunately, it has no long, fat tail like a rat which improves things tremendously. It actually looks quite sweet and was very chilled out amongst many a feral cat.

Modern Art Museum, Niteroi

Having seen photos of Niemeyer's beautiful building for the modern art museum I knew I couldn't leave without a visit. So we hopped on a ferry to cross the river from Rio center to Niteroi. Half an hour's walk after landing we turned a corner to be hit with the view below.It's the kind of building I would have drawn as a ten year old when designing my fantasy town of the future. The comparisons to a flying saucer are obvious though the architect himself compared his design to a flower, emerging upon a stem from a reflecting pool of water, atop a green outcrop of land.Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance mirroring the line of the museum wall.

Inside the museum was a collection of Brazilian Concretist art- all very geometric and interesting- and some more random works on an above floor including some good pieces on censorship during the dictatorship and some interactive fun as modelled by Rach. The star of the show though was most definitely the building itself.Looking across the bay back towards Rio, from within the museum.

Rio de Janeiro, Zona Sul

Firstly, let’s get the pronunciation correct: Hee-oo jee dgan-ay-roo. Add some sun, sand and sea with crashing waves; throw in tanned bodies playing bat-and-ball, foot-volley, volleyball or just posing; tune in to the Samba and Bossanova blaring from the fruit juice and coconut stalls; pull your bikini/trunks up your bum. Ta-da! You’ve got a Rio beach scene. The classic images of the city, the most glamorous place on earth when the jet-set began jet-setting, all come from the Zona Sur. The place names ooze glamour: Ipanema, Sugar-loaf, and Copacabana.The man behind in his sungas (Brazilian swimming trunks worn by all) is standing up with his back to the sea and facing the direction of the sun, sunbathing.

When the sun came out, the sight of all this didn’t disappoint. Sipping fresh coconut water and relaxing on the beach, whilst watching people come and go was a classic travelling experience. While some of the glamour has faded (very few Hollywood stars will be setting foot on the sands of Copacabana this year) the beaches are still used as much as ever by locals and tourists alike, On Sundays especially, when the wide roads behind the beaches are free of motor vehicles, Cariacas love nothing more than getting out and enjoying possibly the most amazing public space, within a major city, in the world. We were on the beach quite a few times. The sea was still warm for swimming and we had a couple of good jogs along the front.

Before coming to Rio I had no idea just how many mountains there are around the city, some reaching up to 1000m. It really is an incredibly beautiful setting and it’s this combination of forested hills and coastline that make it a unique place. About 100 years ago, somebody had the crazy idea of building a cable car to the top of the Sugarloaf. It was an ambitious piece of engineering which of course succeeded and is now one of the top attractions. We went up late on a lovely afternoon and got amazing views all over the city, of a spectacular sunset and of the lights twinkling as night fell.

The highest peak on this photo on the right-hand side has the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of it.

As if Rio weren't blessed enough with jaw-dropping scenery, there is also a large, beautiful lake just a few blocks back from Ipanema beach. We walked most of the way around the lakeside path, which is much used by joggers and cyclists - not a bad life if you're living in one of the apartments around here, especially the tall ones with a view of the sea to one side and the lake to the other. The steep-sided mountains are unsuitable for real estate and instead shanty town favelas are tightly packed into these areas. This makes a stark contrast between people who have so much and spend a lot of time in beauty parlours and people who have very little. At least the people in the favelas in the Zona Sul can get to the beaches unlike people in favelas the northern part of the city who can't afford to get there. Looking across the the lake, fancy lakeside apartments to the left and the favela, Rocinha, clinging to the hillside beyond.

Very few cities in the world have a location anything like this one and it was a joy to be there and take it all in.Sugarloaf mountain in the background and people enjoying the beaches at the weekend.

Flamengo at the Maracana

With two weekends in Rio we couldn’t miss the chance of a football match and luckily the day after we arrived Flamengo, the most supported of the Rio clubs, were playing at home against Atletico Paranaense. Coincidentally this was also the first match back in his home country for Adriano, the Brazilian international who spent years at Inter Milan. We should have arrived earlier at the game because with half an hour to kick off the queues to buy tickets were enormous. The long wait was broken by the spectacle of a giant-sized banner, with the image of Adriano’s face, floating up into the sky. We eventually reached the front, managing to buy our tickets in chaos at the windows with people shouting and virtually standing on top of each other to get to the sales windows, but missed the first 25 minutes of play. We missed the first goal, scored by the new man himself, but the trip was still completely worth it. The stadium is a bowl, seating over 100,000 people. There were nearly 75,000 for this game with over half of them squashed unbelievably tightly into the cheapest seats. It was from there that lots of drums beat out the famous Samba rhythms as the crowd bounced and sang in time. It was good to see almost as many women as men at the game and a low level of policing.Despite looking a little podgy and as lazy as ever (though nothing compared to the big, fat Ronaldo now playing at Corintheans of Sao Paulo), Adriano did what was required to repay the adoration dished out to him with 2 well taken headed goals.

It was a good game with great fans in a sea of red and black. It was also good to visit the stadium that will host the 2014 world cup final, when the country will be truly devastated if the crowd is not a sea of yellow and green.

Marvellous coincidences

It was wonderful to find out that my lovely friend Hannah would be in Rio for one night at the same time as us, before flying north to the Amazon for a few weeks with her job at CAFOD. Unbelievably, as Rio is such a big place, it turned out that she was staying in the hotel opposite Mariana’s apartment.

We went to meet Hannah, her colleague Paul and a Brazilian consultant working with them, at a nearby bar on a Friday night. When we arrived they were sat at an outdoor table in a packed restaurant engrossed in conversation and Hannah enjoying a large caipirinha. We stood in Hannah’s eye line for a few minutes waiting for her to spot us. She eventually did see us and with a characteristic shriek, which halted everyone in the restaurant mid-chew/swallow who turned around to see what was happening, came bounding over to hug us.

We spent that evening and all of the next day with Han and Paul. It was so lovely to see her again, and made me realise how much I’m looking forward to seeing everyone when we get back. It felt surprisingly normal, wandering along the beach with Han as though we were in Brockwell Park.With Han and her colleague Paul drinking fresh coconut water on Ipanema beach.

Rio's Centro

The bits of Rio that make the postcards are in the southern part, the Zona Sul – Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, the Christ statue and Sugar Loaf Mountain. The main part of the city stretches for miles into the north, with a port, financial and business district, poor houses and so many shanty town favelas.

Walking into a central park

The weather was overcast and gloomy on our second day in Rio so we decided to head for buildings rather than beaches. The centre is deserted at the weekends but bustling during the week with business people, street vendors and narrow streets packed with cheap shops mainly selling jeans, jogging bottoms and lycra tops.The Petrobras building

Particularly notable in the centre is the Petrobras (Brazil’s oil company) building, reminiscent of a rubix cube, and directly opposite it, the pyramidal Metropolitan Cathedral. The latter is a fascinating building that looks very modern and industrial from the outside, formed from gloomy concrete, but creates an incredible impact from within where four huge colourful stained glass windows lead your eye to a great cross-shaped skylight high above.

From here we wandered into a seedier but interesting part of town, Lapa, which is fun on a Friday night for dancing in the street to music blaring from car boots whilst drinking beers sold from bins filled with ice, and for going to packed bars full of dancing couples and cross-dressers. Anyhow, there is none of this in the day but there is the impressive, shabby, tall arches of the tramway which winds its way up to the arty hillside area of Santa Teresa.

Near to this are lots of steps, the Escaderia Selaron, which lead up to the working class housing district in Santa Teresa. In 1990 Chilean artist Jorge Selaron decided to decorate the steps with colourful tiles. 19 years on, he is continuing to add to the mosaic with tiles from around the world. It’s an inspired and beautiful piece of art which really lifts the feel of the area, captures the colour and life of the communities, and is a big tourist attraction.

We were quite pleased for the clouds in the end as this whole area would have been easy to overlook in blazing sunshine in favour of more time on Rio’s beaches, but it actually has lots to see and a very different feel to the Zona Sul. Old and newer buildings in the centre with the Metropolitan Cathedral in view behind the glass towerblock.