Friday in Rio

The first thing we did today was take an uber to a local park atop a mountain.  Little did I know that it's a popular hang gliding location.  Check this out:





This is one of those 'I'm not in the USA'  moments.  In the USA, you'd never be able to walk right up to the edge of a cliff like this that's in use by a business.  There would at least be guard rails.  Not so in Rio!

My wife wants to hang glide, but I never ever will.  I am risk averse.  I don't want something to go wrong, and me have my last thoughts be something like, "Well, now you did it.  You jumped off the edge of a cliff.  Guess it wasn't worth it, huh?"  This is how my mind works.

This is the name of this location. After we left, we stopped at a little stand to get pure cane sugar water.

It's a dark brown substance.  I drank it too fast to take a picture!  It's sweet (duh), but not heavy.  I enjoyed it.

A pile of used sugar canes.

This is the machine they use.  Here, the server is inserting the sugar cane into the device, which then crushes it and squeezes out sugar on the bottom.

Used sugar cane being removed.

We went back to my uncle-in-law's house, where my cousin-in-law made this amazing stew.

So many fish and shrimp.  Delicious!

Afterwards, we went to Sugarloaf Mountain.  On the way, my wife took some lovely photos of the city with her camera that is far superior to my iphone.

In order to get to Sugarloaf Mountain, you have to take these sky trolley things.

One trolley takes you to the first peak, and then the second takes you to the ultimate peak.

There were lots of people present.  Much smooshing took place.

I saw a monkey!  It's a little marmoset who kind of sat there for a moment and then took off.

Cute little guy.

I love the photos we took from the top.

Rio at night.

Way in the background, glowing bright white, is the Christ the Redeemer statue.

Lots of boats in the bay.

After the mountain, we met up with my cousin-in-law and went to this gigantic indoor market/festival called the Feira de Sao Cristovao.  This place was amazing.

It's like an entire city in this gigantic compound.

Shop after shop sells clothing, trinkets, ingredients, food...anything you could want, really.

This is a tapioca.  It's basically a hot pocket, except the bread is made from tapioca flour.  Really delicious.  This one is filled with amazing coconut.

This is evidently called a couscous, though it's not the kind of couscous we think of in the USA.  Once again covered in coconut.

We ate at a restaurant that specializes in North Brazilian cuisine.  I got these amazing crab claws.

This bread you're looking at is made from bean flour.  You eat the shrimp whole.  It's to be eaten like a sandwich.

This thing right here.  It's some kinda cheesy shrimp paradise.

You eat it on top of rice with farofa.  This picture also serves as evidence of how much I liked the crab claws.

My wife took pictures of the colorfully-dressed servers.

We then went to check out some live music.  Once again, this is all in the same huge compound.

This is a band playing a style of music known as Forro.  I appreciate the judicious usage of accordion!

We walked a little ways away and checked out a band that plays old-style Ferro.  Accordion, vocals, drum, and triangle.

My cousin-in-law and I.

There was lots of dancing.  Apparently, it's as simple as walking up to someone and saying, hey, let's dance.  Maybe this is how dancing works everywhere.  I don't know.  I usually don't get very close to dancing!

So tomorrow is another travel day.  We will be leaving in the evening, so I will have more photos to post, but I won't be able to get to it until Sunday.  There should be a new post by Monday at the latest.  Time to head back home!