Today is the last full day in Rio . After a relaxed breakfast, we have booked a
tour with Eat Rio. This is a walking
tour, tasting typical Brazilian food. We
took at taxi to the Nova Capela Restaurant, which is where the tour was
starting in the Lapa District. Good
start – the restaurant was chained closed.
We were slightly early, but soon Tom and Manuella arrived, follwed by
two American couples and a German lady.
Tom is from UK
We moved down the road five minutes, and arranged to have the same dish
in a different restaurant. It was a
salted cod fish and other stuff ball, deep fried to give it a crispy
shell. This was cut open, drizzled with
olive oil and then (optionally) a hot pepper sauce poured on. It was delicious. This was washed down with a traditional
pineapple and mint drink. Round one done
– we set off to the next restaurant.
We then walked by the Lapa Arches, or the Carioqua Aquaduct, which were
built in the 1700’s. This was originally
built to carry water to the part of the city that was inhabited, but this
actual part of it has two storey arches that span around 270 metres. Very impressive. It is not used for this any more – in actual
fact I don’t think at the moment it is used for anything. We then walked past the Escardaria Seladon, a
set of steps in done in mosaic by a penniless artist from scraps in the
1990’s. They were done to improve the
look of the steps. He was found burnt to
death on them in 2013. Yuk!
We then went on to our second tasting.
We went to a fruit and vegetable market, and had a tapiocas. I can remember this name, as I thought it was
going to be a milk pudding! It
wasn’t. It was made of a starch from a
vegetable called Manioc. After going
through some process to get the starch, there are ladies on the stall with
frying pans than turn it into tapiocas.
They fry it, then put in either a sweet or savoury filling, turn it in
half like an omelette and you eat it like a sandwich. It was delicious, if somewhat different to
anything I have tasted before.
The whole of the fruit and veg market was buzzing. Many of the stalls were cutting the fruit to
let you taste it. We had some mango that
was so sweet – and so cheap! Some of the
fruits were recognisable, but some I had never seen before. We then went on to have another drink. This was made with pure sugar cane. There were a couple of men with a machine in
a van, and they fed the actual sugar cane into it. A bit like a big juicer. The liquid that came out was then mixed with
other things – not sure what, and then you had it in the cup. There was a squeeze of lime that went in
last. Another delicious drink.
We then went into the metro. A
very good system. The station and the
train were air conditioned – lovely, it was a very hot day again. We went two stops, and then got off in
another district. We then had a weird
soup. I will explain it. It contains cyanide, a plant that is an
anaesthetic, a couple of other things that make it gloopy and a whole
prawn. They are selling it – so I am
eating it! Apparently the cyanide is
cooked out, so it isn’t poisonous when you come to eat it. Hope the chef hasn’t got the hump about
anything! It wasn’t too bad – very
salty, and no matter how I tried to eat the prawn whole I couldn’t bear the
thought of the crunch, so shelled it.
The shell was really soft, and very hard to peel. Still did it though. My mouth definitely went a bit numb, but I
didn’t fall down dead (for the second day in a row!). We also had a dish made of the acai berry
here. A very refreshing frozen drink
type thing. Made your mouth and teeth
purple. Went with the fact that I
couldn’t feel them anyway!
We then walked some more to another market, and had a very alcoholic
drink here over ice that came in either passion fruit or coconut flavour. That made everyone happy! Strong, but pleasant. Out last stop was in a restaurant that had
been converted from slave quarters before slavery was abolished. We had Brazilian beer (think we might have
already tried that one!) and then another traditional Brazilian dish. There was a meat dish that was stew like with
beans and pork rib, rice, a green kale like vegetable, and something else that
you sprinkle over the top. It was lovely
– but by this time everyone was full to the brim. There was live music here, and full of locals
having a very social Sunday afternoon.
What a lovely tour. I think I have remembered everything we had to eat –
so much. No idea about the names
though. Meeting local people, and trying
food that we would not have even known what it was let alone order it. A really good idea.
After the tour we got a taxi to the base of Sugar Loaf Mountain. We were going up for the sunset. A really good time to go – there was no
queues for the cable car at all. Sixty
one reais each – around £17. We rode the
first cable car, then took some pictures from the first stage before getting on
the next cable car to get to the top of Sugar Loaf. The views from the top are stunning – 360
degrees around the whole of Rio . We got up to the top at around 5pm, so half
an hour or so to wait for the sun to go behind the mountains behind the Christ
statue. We had a little walk around the
park area at the top – Paul saw a monkey at the point when I had lost him, so I
never got to see one. There were a few
people up there, but nowhere near as many as during the day. And I think this is the best time to
come. You get the views in daylight, and
the magical rays and colours that the sunset brings. I think the sun should have set a few inches
to the left, so that it was right behind the statue. Instead it went down behind a hill full of
electric and power pylons. Nice!
No waiting to go back down either.
We thought we would try and walk back to the hotel – didn’t look that
far when we up the mountain. As long as
there was a way through a couple of other mountains, Copacabana Beach
A quick drink when we got back.
Paul bumped into a Restaurant Manager that he had been talking to last
night when he thought I was not coming out of the favela. He was glad to see me too! Who doesn’t know where I have been?
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