CAROL BEAN: OUR GIRL FROM IPANEMA TALKS ABOUT RIO

Quem nasce lá na Vila

nem sequer vacila

Ao abraçar o samba

que faz dançar os galhos

do arvoredo e faz a lua

nascer mais cedo

Lá, em Vila Isabel

quem é bacharel

Não tem medo de bamba

São Paulo dá café

Minas dá leite

e a Vila Isabel dá samba

Hi, I'm Carol Bean!

Today, I’m going to talk about Brazil, specifically, Rio de Janeiro, la cidade maravilhosa.

First, we are going to do a route across the more important touristic sites. 

-Copacabana: The most famous beach. It is fantastic! People of the all the world, samba on live, açai -more in the typical foods-, white sand and cool water over 40 degrees.

-Escadaria do Selaron: This staircase is well known because it is made with a mosaic of bright colors such as red, yellow, green...  This staircase connects two districts, at the beginning this La Lapa and when you go up there is the Santa Teresa district. 

La Lapa is a bohemian district of the center with more typical pubs to dance all the typical dances of Rio. Forro is danced in the pubs like Estudiantina Musical, Os Democraticos,  or Leviano.
 

Another dance is samba gafieira...

   

There are two types of funk: funk and funky de favela.

Funk...

Now, it is fashionable among young people to do passinho competitions:

Funky de favela...

Santa Teresa is the oldest district of colonial Brazilian times. There are two ways to go up to the district: Walking or in the Bondinho to enjoy and travel to past.
 
But, now is Carnival! We are going to enjoy the parties in the streets with Os Blocos, the future samba schools that want to be able to parade in the Sambódromo but now they belong to the school category. They have to be known in order to have more partners and they do it doing parties in the streets during all the carnival.

On the other hand, those that are already samba schools like the Portela, Uniao da Ilha, Mocidade already parade in the Sambódromo. The parade of the samba schools lasts about 2 hours each with approximately 2000 components.

Watching parade with the music at full volume and the skin bristles is an unforgettable experience and how we dance so much, walk and have fun, we're very hungry.  Let's taste typical and delicious meals of Rio!

Carol Bean with Portela in Venetian style in 2015

-Feijoada: Black beans and various types of meat -legs, pork, rib, sausage...-. This dish was created by the slaves, when they only had the feijao that are the black beans and their owners gave them the leftovers of the meat they ate, then, they all gathered and put together the pieces of meat that each one had received from its owner.

When you have eaten the plate the custom is to eat a slice of orange, since it lowers all the fat from the mouth and throat and to drink a caipirinha. All this, we will eat in one of the samba schools while we are listening to samba on live and the carnival is celebrated.

-Angu: Corn flour and various meats -liver, sausage, rib...- with beer in the angu does Gomes, the most typical bar where all the sambistas go to recover their strength to continue with the party, but if we want to eat something fast, at every step on the street we will find a good barbecue with meat skewers.

Well, time to enjoy has come!

 Brazil has its own fashion identity. Many very talented Brazilian designers show every season at Sao Paulo and Rio fashion weeks. 

Gisele Bundchen