Day 34 – Rio de Janeiro – Still so much to do!
After another early morning beach visit, we joined Liana and Silvie for a visit to the Wednesday Copacabana market. It included a tour past the spot where the Ribiero home used to be – now a high-rise apartment against the tunnel. Visiting local markets is always an adventure, and this one did not disappoint! The tropical fruits seemed endless in variety – so many we have never seen in Canada. There were the identifiable jack fruit, lychee, passion fruit, pineapple, incredible tasting mangos, many varieties of bananas as well my recently learned of aipi, guarana and cashew fruit – but also many unknowns. Same in the veggie world – we bought some aipim and we were offered many taste samples including pimientos and spices. Then there were the fishes and meats – again many different fishes and cuts of beef and pork. The food booths were sooo tempting – we had tapioca pancakes with queso (I bought some flour to make them back home). Mike also managed to find his pastel – he had a carne but you can get many flavours of filling – sweet or savoury.
We returned to a massive lunch feast which Denese (the cook) had helped to prepare. Solange joined us for our lunch which included her favourite – gnocchi with tomato sauce, but we also had okra, milanese (both carne and frango), rice, a very yummy fedafa (I don’t say that often!), and a salad of grated carrots, diced beets with palm hearts and sweet corn. All were superb. Then another Brazilian favourite for dessert – quindim, probably the best I’ve had (sorry Marucia – but the ingredients here seem to make a difference!)
After our feast, the 4 of us tourists headed off by taxi to the botanical gardens. We timed to be there for sunset, and the gardens did not disappoint. Derek & Marketa and we decided to each take our own route in gardens as we had different interests and the gardens were huge. There were several highlights we found.
– The cactus display where we learned of genetic confluence. Seems there are several non-cacti that have evolved in parallel to cacti. The display included several ‘sister’ plants which looked very similar – they evolved independently under similar conditions in entirely different places. Natural selection led them to genetic confluence.
– The orchid house had samples from micro-orchids to giant ones.
– The beehives with tiny bees through ‘normal’ size bees.
– And the avenue of palm trees were not what you normally see in the Caribbean islands. Here they don’t get the cyclones/hurricanes/tornadoes which allows the trees to keep growing.
– Finally the bamboo circles with individual bamboo stalks of 8 inch diameter and incredibly high. Lots of mosquitos though…
Once again the Corcovado appeared through the clouds (not as photogenic this time, but just as impressive in person!)
Then the taxi home where we also stopped in for some grocery shopping to pick up some 50% cocoa 50%sugar power to try to make brigadiero back home..wish me luck on that!
Beautiful pictures!