travels in the land of Carnaval- part II- RIO

After Sao Paulo there was Rio which meant carnaval with a huge defile in the sambadrome, all night, and with many many streetparties (blocos) for several days, all of which needed lots of stamina and I keep wondering how they did it, is it the acai juice, the matte, the farofa??? One thing is sure, they do know how to party and seem to have a never ending tolerance for samba dancing (which can go on for hours and hours). Another remarkable thing was the often great sense of humor and creativity displayed in their costumes. These characteristics make them a most wonderful people, I would not mind if one of my daughters comes home with such a creature (in ten years time, that is, they're only nine years old right now!)

Anyway, once carnaval was over, the Brazilians could start 2012 like all the rest of us had already done weeks earlier. Life went back to normal and there was time to visit the beaches and other great sights in this, it has to be said, magnificent city. Mountains, lush vegetation, a big lake, beaches all around... you name it, Rio has it.
What it also has:
-crazy chauffeurs (bus, taxi)
- lots of police everywhere (which is very reassuring, also the fact that a lot of favellas have been 'pacified')
-a truly mixed population (in that you can have the looks from Asia, India, Caucasia, Africa all next to each other)
-great fresh fruit juices on each and every corner
-caipirinhas and cachaca in each and every bar
-a lot of sun so that whilst at the beach one has to be careful because before you know it you look like a toast - a golden one after 30 minutes, a brown one after one hour and a very black burnt one after only two hours!
-besides the sun one finds at the beaches heaps of bare buttocks (just like you see the women of the 'indigenous population ‘dressed in the museu do indio- a lovely museum but such a pity that they don't let you buy the beautiful artifacts straight from the museum!)
-so as I said, heaps of bare buttocks on the beaches, in all shapes and sizes, but not one single bare breast. The idea of being topless for them is apparently very shocking, and only to be condoned during carnaval when there's a lot of body paint over it.
-besides the bare buttocks, lots of people are wearing braces. Not the young ones, but the ones in their thirties and older. I wonder if that is a fashion accessory here, who knows. In any case it must be good news for the dentists.
-Talking about dentists, maybe I’ll have to re-school myself so that I can come live here... Or maybe it will just be easier to hope that, if there's such a thing as an afterlife, I'll come back as a Brazilian. A Brazilian with money, that is, because it's certainly no bargain over here!!

END

PS- For my friends from Antwerp: those 'blocos' parties resemble very much the 'beiaard concerten', in that there's a gathering of a huge crowd of friends. Only difference is that in this case there will be a band playing samba all evening, and the people will be dancing the samba all evening, and they will fuel their sore legs with caipirinhas and will be dressed in some funny outfit, but for the rest they will be talking and laughing and gossiping just like at the beiaardconcerten. Voila!