Discovering my inner carnivore and more

Hello friends and family!

I have been busy this week with intensive Portuguese class, homework, and making new friends yet also exploring a bit more of Rio.

On Sunday, PUC organized a field trip for the Portuguese intensive students to the Centro district of Rio, Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) and to a fancy lunch in a traditional Brazilian churrascaria or steakhouse. We were also supposed to visit Christ the Redeemer and the Tijuca forest but the area was closed because a tree had fallen....oh well.

One of the first stops of the tour was the famous carioca Sambodrome just west of Centro where Rio's samba schools parade every carnaval. The Sambodrome, or Sambódromo, is actually quite underwhelming and ugly by day with no one in it: it's basically just huge blocks of cement bleachers on opposing sides of a road spanning about 700 meters. There is however a small, tacky museum near the entrance that was quite fun if only for the fact that it allows people to dress up in flashy carnaval attire and an adorable group of old American tourists did just that.

Me and my Colombian friend Diana in the Sambodromo giftshop. Ready for carnaval!

After, we walked a bit around Centro, which reminded me of Portugal with its colonial style buildings and cobblestone streets that are, in some areas, for pedestrians only. Next stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was buzzing with activity as many pilgrims for the upcoming World Youth Day were visiting. 

For lunch, we stopped at a traditional Brazilian churrascaria where you pay a fixed price and get unlimited access to a buffet of salads, cheeses, and other appetizers in addition to unlimited meat which is brought directly to your table by waiters on long spits fresh from the kitchen. Beef, lamb, chicken, linguiça, anything you can think of is brought right there to your table and you are free to eat as much as you like.

I've never been much of a meat-eater (I've been pretty much pescatarian all of college) but I thought I would try out the different meats for the experience and I am so glad I did! The meat was delicious and perfectly cooked, although sometimes I did not even know what animal I was eating haha... I had never seen so many different cuts of meat, and it was all so tender and flavorful! They even had spits of grilled bread smothered in butter and garlic that they brought to the table several times.  I had to ultimately force myself to stop eating; the garçoms (waiters) simply would not stop coming around with more food. Also, random side note, when I do eat meat I usually like to eat it with mustard but Brazilians do not seem to share this affinity... When I asked for mustard the waiter took a while to find some and finally came back with an unmarked yellow bottle that looked like it had been sitting in a corner for years.

MEAT.

Overall it was a great meal, but at more than 30 dollars per person (and this was after a discount for being in a large group), eating at a churrasca is not a treat I plan on indulging in very often. We finished the day visiting Pão de Açucar, the famous postcard-perfect Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio from which you can see amazing views of the rest of the city. It is linked to another smaller hill called Morro da Urca by gondolas (think  huge enclosed ski-lifts). Luckily we arrived at Sugar Loaf before the line of tourists to go up was too long, and we were still able to see the lighting over the city change a bit as the sun began to lower in the sky.

Here I am on Sugarloaf Mountain with the lovely Copacabana beach in the back! Not sure who this guy is... he jumped into the picture at the last minute.

The view from the top and the gondola I took to get there!

Last but not least...adorable monkeys living in the trees of Sugar Loaf Mountain!

I am hoping to visit Christ the Redeemer this week, which will soon be open 24 hours a day in preparation for the influx of tourists to the city for World Youth Day. To be continued!

Much love!!
Marie