Brazil: a day of markets

Today we went to the local street markets, or feiras.  The first market, the Centro Comercial, was surprisingly lame.  A lot of black market electronics (I saw a "Sony PolyStation"), clothing and media.  We did get one or two things, but it wasn't really the souvenir market we had anticipated.  It was also super crowded and easy to get lost in.  So we decided to go by another market, but first we wanted to see the Nossa Senhora da Candelária Catholic Church.

I gotta say - Brazilians know how to do Catholic right!  Nothing against USA Catholics (of which I am related to not a few), but when you combine statues like the Christo Redentor statue we saw Monday, the conical church from Tuesday's adventure, and this, I'm thoroughly impressed:

The main dome.

I was entranced by this angel - what nobility.

Beautiful.

They literally had a roll of red carpet by the door, 

to "roll out" when dignitaries visited, I suppose.

The view from the door.

The other feira, the Feira Nordestina, was little better but each shop seemed to sell the same stuff.  We did manage to get stuff for our mamas.  One thing that cracked me up was this statue outside the feira of a guy named Lampião playing the accordion.  According to James, this guy was Brazil's version of Billy the Kid, or maybe Bonnie and Clyde, since he apparently roamed the countryside in a lawless manner with his wife, Maria Bonita.  Also, the accordion is apparently a much more dignified instrument in Brazil - visualize a statue of Billy the Kid playing the guitar or harmonica, I suppose.

Me and Lampião

These were very nice painted dolls, 

but there were at least a thousand of them at this market.

The jersey I wouldn't let James buy.

We got pretty hungry shopping, so we stopped and had some carne de sol (grilled, sun dried meat - moister than jerky) and aipim frita (fried cassava root).  Pretty darned good!  While we were eating, I was tempted to light up a cigarette, but then I saw this ad, which put me straight:

Check out the diseased gums.  

Their Surgeon General is much more hard core than ours!  

Yum!

We took a break from shopping to check out a nice park with some interesting flora and get a view of the Maracanã stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the world, seating over 200,000 people.  I was tired, so we only saw it from afar, and then went home to rest and change. 

This was a crazy tree with giant pods that apparently 

would pop open and reveal beautiful flowers.

The aforementioned flowers.  

They look like they have an under-bite.

This was as close to the Maracanã as we got (me sitting on the lawn).

Here's a better picture of the Maracanã, 

taken from the hill Corcovado (on Monday)

That evening, we decided to take one last shot at shopping for the day, but by the time we arrived (around 7 pm), they were all closing shop.  On the upside, we did catch the tail end of a big outdoor used book sale nearby.  James got the book Olga, which was the base for the Brazilian movie of the same name, about a Jewish German during WWII who escaped to Brazil and became involved in the revolution there.  Good movie; I hope he enjoys the book.

Our lunch reserves had run out, so we got dinner, whereat James introduced me to . . . açaí . . . mmmmm!  Açaí is a fruit from Brazil that is just making it's debut here in the states, but the way they serve it is unique.  Think smoothie meets sorbet.  It's softer than sorbet, but they serve it in a big bowl, with granola on the side.  We shared a big bowl of the heavenly nectar and a ham and cheese roll and called it good.  (We didn't have our camera with us at this point, so I'll get pictures later in the week.)

We then decided we needed at least one taste of the Rio night life in the famous Lapa district. We had been warned to leave any valuables at home, so no pictures, sorry.  We did get to hear some nice samba music, though.  We wandered around the streets for a bit, and James heard some nice music coming from a crowded restaurant.  As we were still full from the açaí, we sat down and just had two guaranas, much to the irritation of the server (he still opened and poured our sodas per Brazilian food service protocol, but he did so in a very terse manner). They charged us a cover charge to listen to the band, so I don't feel bad about not ordering food.

Oh, and good news!!  When we got home, James had gotten an email from the US Consulate saying that his passport had been turned it!  So we'll pick it up Monday morning before we fly out.  It's not valid anymore, since he was issued a new temporary one on Tuesday, but he was really bummed about not having all the stamps from various trips, including his mission.  Oh, and the visa!