Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

I wonder as we drove through the landscape along the coastline: where do Brazilians grow their vegetables? I know nothing about the quality of the soil but with around 206 million inhabitants and a country the size of North America, there must be a market? Actually Brazil is one of the world's major breadbaskets, and Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. When I shop food in the local supermarkets here in Vidigal, I can only find what I regard as a small selection of vegetables. Maniok, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green pepper, chuchu ( in the family of cucumber), carrots and onions. I know I live in a favela and that the selection might be limited, but I found the same limited selection of veggies, when we stayed in Itacare, a relatively wealthy town. Is it simply supply and demand or is there another explanation? Also: I have watched many street kitchens, cafes and restaurants. All kitchen staff even in the street kitchens are wearing hair...

Some of our experiences here in Rio are like stepping between the most beautiful and the worst. Like it was today, when we arrived at Centro, the city center, and saw rows of torched and burned out city buses and lots of smashed up shop windows after a night of violent demonstrations. Thousands had been protesting against government plans for cuts by making a general strike during the day - and during the night mayhem had beset the streets and police had thrown tear gas and  had been shooting on protesters with rubber bullets   Photo: Reuters & AP Even when we passed through the area at noon, many hours later, armed policemen patrolled the streets and cleaned up the barricades, which were put up by the protesters during the night. And then - in the midst of the devastation - we found a picturesque alley, Arco de Teles, where we were attracted by the sound of distant, gentle bossa nova It was a strange feeling to walk from the remains of...

Photo: Rio tourism Rio is visually a strange place to visit. Looking at the city from above,  you see the deep blue ocean, the endless strings of golden beaches and the multicolored favelas clinging to the steep foothills of lush, jungle-clad mountains. Seen from above, Rio is for sure a Cidade Maravilhosa, the most marvellous city. But when we came closer and actually walked the streets, we started feeling somewhat disappointed. A not so tall girl on Ipanema... The areas next to our own - Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana - are (just behind the fabled, bustling seafronts) mostly streets  with quite drab buildings and not that interesting shops. Just some areas which seem a bit faded since their heyday in the 1950ties.  Whenever we returned to Vidigal, we confirmed each other: This favela has the excitement, the sexiness and the samba, which we didn't find in the neighboring residential areas.   After a couple o...

João Goulart, the main road, which winds up along the steep slope of the  Vidigal favela, is normally teeming with traffic -  motorcycles, cars and lorries cruise up and down at breakneck speeds.  Normally, but not on the evening of Boa Sexta-feira, The Good Friday, when everything comes to a standstill during the enacting of the way of the suffering Christ. The darkness is lit up by  twinkling candles, carried by hundreds of pedestrians - all following the young man, who's designated to carry the cross up the hill. Along the route, neighbors have erected candlelit alters, each displaying a small figurine of the virgin Mary. They stand, praying, while the procession slowly passes by. - Pai de Misericórdia durante esta época de arrependimento olhai com compaixão para nós. The priest, walking in front, belts out the words. - Father of Mercy during this time of repentance, look with compassion on us. We walk solemnly up the alleys - until t...

As  our friends know well: We're not into football, but when you happen to be in Rio on the day of a Fla-Flu match, you just can't sit at home. Fla-Flu - the more than one hundred year old, intense rivalry between the two local clubs of Flamengo and Fluminense - is considered among the most beguiling derbies in the entire world. Unfortunately - this Sunday the two teams didn't, as is normally the case, clash together on  the fabled Maracanã stadium. If that had happened, we absolutely would have tried to get seats at the 'Clássico das Multidões' (the derby of the masses) - on the packed bleachers surrounded by what is described as a pandemonium of flags, banners and fireworks. This Sunday, the Fla-Flu match was (by reasons we didn't understand) placed on an obscure stadium far from Rio and we had to make do with watching it at one of the local taverns. Prior to a 'fla-flu' encounter the excitement is building up all over Rio -...

I'm beginning to feel a little bit as a Favelean now - and even though we have this very tiny kitchen in our apartment, today I went out shopping for one of the classic local dishes - beans and rice. First and foremost because it tastes so good (we had it as our first meal at a street kitchen in Salvador, shortly after our arrival), but also because it is one of the basics in Brazilian kitchen - just like "sauce and potatoes" is in the Danish. Now, I'm cooking, while, somewhere deep below, Michael is out running his daily distance along Ipanema beach. Eventually he has to climb the many hundreds or perhaps thousand steps leading up to our building on the mountain slope. I hope, he'll be building up a healthy appetite, because there will be plenty  in the casserole. Here is the recipe I have chosen: Rice and beans or  “o arroz com feijão” : 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 tablespoons of diced bacon or use a selection of salted meats (ready ...

Vidigal on the slopes of Dois Irmãos - one of the photos, which back in Denmark persuaded me it could be nice to live in a favela   When we planned for Rio, Michael came up with a longtime dream of spending some time in a favela - one of the vast slum like areas, which are covering the slopes of some of the many mountains in and around Rio. I wasn't keen on doing it, having heard of the violent crime and abject poverty inside the favelas - but Michael worked hard to persuade. He had found an apartment in Vidigal, a township,  which within the last couple of years had almost come to the threshold of being  gentrified. All his research told him, Vidigal would be vibrant, exciting, safe  - and when he showed a photo of the view from what could be our future rooftop terrace - the Atlantic Ocean with huge waves crashing towards the rocks below the terrace - it was a done deal! ...

Brazil is  the fifth-largest country in the world - and to really feel its size, we decided to travel by bus  from Itacaré to our next destination, Rio de Janeiro. It looked like just a small, local route, when you saw it on a Brazilian map - but Brazil IS a vast country and driving the distance would actually take us almost 27 hours. The first few hours, we regretted the decision of going by bus. The guy behind the wheel seemed to be a driver from hell. We were thrown from side to side, while the speeding bus skirted along winding roads. Eventually, though, we, the driver and the bus seemed to get accustomed to each other. The driver might still be going far too fast on the narrow, bumpy roads, but we had buckled our seat belts, and we now found time to look out the window. We spent hours watching endless stretches of Atlantic rain forest, of vast grass plains scattered with flocks of...

    Today, the last day before leaving Itacaré, we finally reached it. THE BEACH. Prainha. The one we, way back in January, saw on a photograph and decided, we just had to visit You can't go to Prainha by road. You have to trek a couple of miles inside the jungle, which surrounds Itacaré. This jungle is one of the last, large expanses of Atlantic rain forest left in Brazil, and - especially in the early morning - it is teeming with animal life. There are monkeys like brown howlers and masked titis. There are sloths, armadillos -  and even jaguars! The other day an old man had been attacked by a jaguar not far from our town. With all this in mind, we actually found it quite exciting trekking down the narrow jungle paths, not knowing what waited at the next bend. Being extremely nervous about snakes, Rita has a feeling they are almost magnetically drawn towards her. And it might be true: She's  come across snakes around the world in...

  Surfers are known for saying "The best surfers out in the water are the ones having the most fun." In that respect - and ONLY in that respect - we might have been the best surfers on Engenhoca Beach  today. Because - boy - did we have fun in our first surfing class ever. OK - as newbies, we didn't 'do the barrel' or 'roll the turtle'. We were content just hitting the right wave and being catapulted forward, towards the beach, in an explosion of bubbles and foam. Surfing is not easy. Not in any way, but, while Michael chose a boogieboard and were able to speed along from get-go, I went for the classic longboard and had to take several hours of tedious instructions. The longboard teacher, Aldi, was a rugged man about my age, who had surfed almost since he, as a toddler, began crawling out into the water. He now used his many years of expertise, to show me how to get up on a board and how to find a point of balance, while picking up more s...