La vida porteña: Pascua Argentina & Cidade Maravilhosa: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Alô amigos, and Happy Mother's Day!
My last post was on Palm Sunday, so I'll do a quick run-through of the weeks in Argentina leading up to my Spring Break trip to Rio de Janeiro (known in Brazil as Cidade Maravilhosa, or Marvelous City)!
Since we didn't have class on Maudy Thursday or Good Friday, I used the time to explore more of the city and do some much-needed shopping (my converter for my hair dryer sparked and burnt out so it was time to find a new one! Oops). On Thursday, Dan Liz and I decided to go see the new animated movie RIO at one of the theaters nearby in 3D! Since Argentines are always out late, most of the showtimes go until after midnight, so even a kid's movie was still showing at 1am. Another interesting fact about movie tickets is that you have an assigned seat in the theater before you go in, so if you want to sit by friends you have to buy them all from the same register. The movie was about a blue maccaw who lived in MN with his owner, who finds out that he is the last male of his kind and gets flown to Rio to keep the species going! I had to laugh at the irony of it :) It turned out to be a really cute movie, and even though the whole thing was in Spanish, I still felt like I could follow everything! The soundtrack was awesome too, and since the songs were super catchy and all about Rio de Janeiro, I made sure I downloaded them to get me excited for the trip.
Friday night, Sofia invited the group over to ring in her birthday at midnight with snacks and drinks, and her señora even got her a cake! It was fun celebrating another 21st in Buenos Aires :)
Saturday was my shopping day, and also part of the month-long Feria de Libros (Book Fair) in Buenos Aires. It celebrates literacy in Argentina and features famous authors and book sales from all over the country and the world. On my way back from finding a new hairdryer I ran into the celebration in the middle of Plaza Italia, where a choir was doing their sound check on a large stage for a later show. There were also street performers, and even a Turkish flash dance! That night, we celebrated Sofia's birthday for real by going out to a Spanish restaurant called Ávila. It was a dinner/show type of place, and we got to watch an awesome live flamenco show right next to our table! After midnight, Liz and I were excited to be able to eat ice cream again since we were officially done with lent, so we went to one of the many heladerias in the city called Volta to get some gelato-like ice cream which is so famous in Buenos Aires. Sooo delicious!!
On Easter (Pascua), a group of us woke up early for catholic mass at the Santa Teresa church near my house. It was interesting going to a catholic mass, but it was hard to follow since it was in Spanish! Also, most people go to mass the night before instead of on Sunday, so it wasn't as formal as I was used to and there were a lot of people wearing jeans- one woman even brought in a small dog! After church, Liz and I went back to my apartment where Maritina (my host mom) was hosting an Easter luncheon of 9 people, mostly her friends that had been over to the house before. We shared slices of tartas (like quiche) and lentil soup, and finished off with a Rosca de Pascua (Easter bundt cake). Liz and I decided to get another ice cream afterwards, too since we were still excited about being able to enjoy it :)
The next day marked the start of mid-terms, so Tuesday night Audra and I pulled an all-nighter to finish our take-home Argentine Foreign Relations final. Poetry was on Wednesday as well, and my last test (Spanish) was on Thursday. As soon as that was all over, I started packing since Friday morning at 6:55am I left for Rio de Janeiro!!

After a smooth check-in at the local airport, I found out that my travel companions didn't have such great luck themselves: one of their flights was canceled since the plane broke down, and they were bussed to another airport an hour away to wait for a flight 3 hours later; another switched airports at the last minute and my friend showed up at the wrong one and had to do the same 1 hour taxi ride to Ezeiza Airport instead! What madness.
After all 8 of us arrived safely, we took a taxi to the Che Lagarto Hostel on Ipanema beach, right next to the famous Copacabana! We met travelers from all over the world here, and it was even fun when we met Spanish-speakers so we could practice. The hardest part was being in a country where I couldn't communicate easily with people- the best I could hope for was that they could understand either Spanish or English! Most of the week-long trip was spent at the beach soaking up some rays, but we had to take time for some touristy things too. Our first must-see visit was to visit the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). It's one of the wonders of the World, so why not see it, right? It's so big you can basically see if from everywhere in the city- it's located on top of the Corcovado Mountain, which is 2,300 ft tall, and the statue itself is over 130 ft tall! The views from the top were absolutely breathtaking... easily one of the most beautiful landscapes I'd ever seen. The other trip was to the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), which is another great place to take in the sights of Rio de Janeiro. Made out of granite and quartz, the mountain is located right on the famous Guanabara Bay on the Pacific Ocean and rises 1,299 ft in the air! To get to the top, we took a "bondinho," or cable car, to the top of a smaller mountain, and then another one to get to the top of the Sugarloaf. Mollie and I got there just as the sun was setting, which set the scene for some truly spectacular views of the area at dusk and the brilliant city lights after the sun went down. Absolutely breathtaking!
Another great aspect of Brazil is its fresh fruit. We're talking straight off the vine/tree fresh-- nearly every day we watched as someone hacked the top off of a coconut so we could sip the sweet water inside, or enjoyed a mouth-watering Açaí smoothie with delicious chunks of banana/kiwi or granola sprinkled on top. It's naturally sweetened with Guaraná, which is a main ingredient in most energy drinks. Other notable foods include camarões (shrimp), pão de queijo (cheese bread shaped in balls), caipirinhas (a sweet lime drink made with Brazilian liquor called cachaça which is from sugarcane), suco de maracujá (passion fruit juice), and fro-yo!
Lastly, some fun things I noticed about the beach culture: There are mini workout stations every half-mile around the beach, and people actually use them! The average Brazilian works out a lot to maintain their perfectly muscled beach body. We also enjoyed watching the locals juggle soccer balls in small groups- this is everywhere along the beach! Some even use a volleyball net and hit the ball back and forth without using their hands. Another thing we noticed is that barely anyone uses towels- guys and girls lay on sarongs that are sold everywhere on the beach!
The last night we took a shuttle to the famous Escadaria Selarón (Selarón Steps) near the Arcos da Lapa in the Lapa/Santa Teresa neighborhood. Every Friday there is a huge street party held there with thousands of people taking up multiple streets with food vendors, alcohol tents, and random jewelry/clothing. It was crazy trying to maneuver through it while still keeping the group together, but it was definitely something to experience! The next morning we were on a flight back to Buenos Aires and fall weather.
Today, I celebrated being back in the city by exploring the San Telmo fair with some friends, which was like a version of Antiques Roadshow/an art festival in a few of the neighborhood's streets. Examples of things for sale were silver utensils, old comic books, glass bottles, and rusted old keys! Quite the mishmash of things. After enjoying a nice dinner of Arabic food and later café/medialunas (my fave), we called it a day. Tomorrow I go back to the daily grind, so wish me luck!
Até logo (Portuguese for hasta luego/until later),
♥ Taylor