Rio – the most beautiful city on Earth
Each of us sincerely loves our hometown with all our heart, but it is worth admitting that the most beautiful city in the world is Rio. It was here that Ostap Bender so desperately wanted to go, and one can only imagine how disappointed he would be to discover that today no one walks around Rio de Janeiro, the city of his dreams, in white trousers.
Honestly, few people wear trousers here at all, preferring shorts, or even swimsuits and trunks. Rio is a hot city. In January and February, at the peak of summer here, temperatures reach 45 degrees, and the only escape from this heat is on the beach.
Rio is a huge city, matching Brazil itself. Locals don’t even take offense when you translate the popular phrase about the country of wild monkeys; they simply don’t understand that stupid joke. Brazil is a powerful industrial country. And wild monkeys – well, they are here too. It would be strange if they were absent in a country that has the world’s largest forest, the legendary Amazon rainforest. True, most of the inhabitants of these concrete jungles have never been in the real jungle – it’s a full seven hours’ flight from Rio to the capital of the Amazon.
The center of Rio is especially beautiful in the evenings. There are almost no residential buildings here, and office workers head to restaurants or go home after the workday. On the emptying streets, you might only meet tourists or couples in love, so strolling through the center of Rio in the evening is even more pleasant and interesting than during the day, even though the capital of Brazil is considered far from the safest city.
At the heart of the carnival
The main event in Rio de Janeiro, and indeed in all of Brazil, is the carnival. It lasts about a month, and the celebration is nationwide. The center of events is the Sambadrome, where the best samba schools compete. Each prepares its own performance involving dozens of drummers, men and women in folk costumes, children, and of course professional samba dancers.
Each school’s performance is judged on several criteria, not only samba technique but also the choice of music, the meaning of the lyrics, and the design of floats and costumes. In short, every performance is a show where every nuance matters.
For those who find themselves in Rio but, alas, cannot attend the carnival, there has recently been an opportunity to experience this celebration. For this purpose, the City of Samba was opened in Rio de Janeiro. Here you can learn about the history of the carnival, see how real samba is danced, and listen to its enchanting melodies.
The most important thing is that in the City of Samba, each of the dance schools from the Higher League has its own pavilion. It is in these pavilions that preparations for the carnival take place. During preparation, the pavilions are closed – each school tries to keep the concept of its performance secret. We had a unique opportunity to go inside and see the backstage of the carnival.
The dance school chooses a theme that is necessarily linked to the life of the country. This theme is embodied in the design of floats, platforms, and costumes. The choice of theme is kept secret until autumn: only shortly before the carnival do the dance schools announce what their performances will be dedicated to.
Once inside the pavilion, we approach several decorators and costume makers in turn. The first is painting giant palms, which will presumably become part of the platform’s decoration. The second shows us hats being made for the dancers.
Here we also see hats for the drummers: they are shaped like chess pieces. Further along – armor costumes, as if assembled from pieces of a children’s construction set. In the design of other costumes, motifs from African games, tic-tac-toe, modern computer games are used – many variations.
The theme of the performance of the dance school whose pavilion we visited is “Verador turns everything into a game!” And indeed – everything around us reminds us of games. One can only imagine how colorful and bright the dancers’ performance will be!
Favelas of São Paulo: walks in forbidden territory
For a while, we will leave vibrant Rio to visit an equally interesting place. Meet São Paulo itself, one of the largest cities in the world. Here are gathered all the power and scope, all the wealth and poverty, all the vices and most of the virtues of Brazil.
No one knows exactly how many people live in this city-state. 18, 20, 22 million? But it is known for sure that more goods and services are produced here than in all of South America combined. And that the cost per square meter on the main street, Avenida Paulista, is higher than in Moscow or New York.
São Paulo is also considered one of the world champions in the number of helipads, which are equipped on the roofs of skyscrapers. There are over three hundred here. And if there are helicopters, that means there are people who fly them. Although those who can never afford a taxi-helicopter ride are, frankly, even more numerous.
Brazil has developed rapidly in recent years, with its economy growing on average by 7% per year, and the gap between the richest and poorest inhabitants has narrowed slightly. Yet poverty is still visible to the naked eye. And millions of people live in poor neighborhoods. They are called “favelas.” Today we are expected in one of them.
The favelas of São Paulo, like those of other large Brazilian cities, formed decades ago when peasants began arriving here in search of a better life. Back then they built their shacks from whatever was at hand. Over time, all this turned into a fairly well-established town. However, to film or even just walk here, you need permission from the right people. And that’s what we did.
Anyone expecting to see something out of the ordinary here will be disappointed. Externally, the favelas have nothing special – ordinary people are busy with everyday tasks. True, there are no addresses here – locals already know who lives where. And strangers don't walk here. There is no rent either – there's nothing to pay for. Houses are built without permits and most of them have no water.
Official authority does not fully extend to this territory. Favelas are tightly controlled, as we used to say in the 90s, by gangs. This does not mean that everyone here is a criminal, not at all, but someone born here has a much greater chance of ending up behind bars than in university.
However, not all is bad: across Brazil today, institutions like the Reciclar Institute, which we will look into, are being created. What is this institute? It somewhat resembles the Makarenko labor colonies that existed at the dawn of the last century in our country, but, of course, adjusted for the changing times.
Reciclar is located on the outskirts of São Paulo. This project was born 15 years ago on the initiative of a financier who decided to give young people a chance to escape poverty and crime. Enterprises send waste paper here, from which teenagers make notebooks, notepads, and other useful items.
120 kids spend 8 hours here daily. Six hours studying, and two hours working. To stay in the project and continue receiving, albeit small, but their own salary, they need not only to work well but also to get good grades in school. For many, this is a chance to get an education and maybe escape the favelas.
São Paulo Market: A Ticket to Tropical Paradise
Every time you find yourself in Brazil, you can try something new, something you have never even seen before. Where to go for new sensations? Of course, to the market!
Atemoya. Unlike anything else and very tasty. Musmango. Same as mango but without sourness, a very sweet fruit. Kaki. With the stress on the second syllable. Very similar to persimmon.
"Zabucajaba" – large berries that most resemble currants. But with the taste of grapes. Chinese grapes. By the way, a powerful aphrodisiac. And this is just a small part of the local fruits.
We talk to a seller at the local market: "Each fruit here is special. And each has its season. Every month something new appears. One ripens in the state of Pará, another in Bahia, another somewhere else. In short, fruits year-round, eat as much as you want."
Indeed, the abundance is striking. Not only fruits: completely unknown spices, fish and seafood, exotic products: for gastronomic tourism, Brazil is perfect.
Let's Have a Brazilian Snack?
If I ask you what you will eat next Saturday, you'll probably shrug: "Who knows?" If you ask a Brazilian the same question, he will answer: "Of course, I'll eat feijoada." This is the most famous Brazilian dish, and it is eaten only on Saturdays, and honestly, it's clear why: it's not that it's difficult to cook, but it takes quite a while.
Before us are manioc, a root vegetable similar to potato, pork tenderloin, ribs, sausage, black beans, rice, oranges, fried bananas, farofa, herbs, fried garlic. The most important thing is dried beef, which is soaked for two days.
There is a legend that feijoada originated back in the times when black slaves simply collected everything left from their masters' tables and made food. However, whether it was so or not, no one knows anymore.
All ingredients are boiled in turn with the beans, and then they are laid out on separate dishes, and the beans remain on their own. You serve yourself beans and add to taste the tenderloin, ribs, sausage – in short, whatever you like.
Feijoada turns out to be a dish for every taste: if there are several types of meat, fruits, and vegetables on the table, then you will surely be able to find a combination that you like.
Brazil is a multitude of impressions. Bright colors of carnival on one side, harsh conditions in the favelas on the other. Industrial, developed cities and magnificent forests. Luxury and poverty, crime and the warmth of Brazilians.
You can return to Brazil several times and always feel like a discoverer: so much here is interesting, unusual, sometimes mind-blowing!