Olá from São Paulo!
It’s our second week in South America’s biggest city, and we’re starting to find our way around this fasinating place. Carnaval is only a few days away and you can feel the anticipation building.
Here’s this week’s question: Have you ever been in town for the “main” event (like Carnaval in Rio or Oktoberfest in Munich)? I’d love to hear your story in the comments. We’ll ready our comments in our next podcast, as always.
Brazil has some of the best passionfruit in the world, and they are huge compared to the kind you find in Hawaii, Southeast Asia or Madeira. We have been hopping between grocery stories in São Paulo to find the tastiest maracujá. I think the passionfruit at Carrefour is the best (I know, technically, that’s a French grocery store).
We’ll talk more about our favorite passionfruit in the podcast.
This is the MuseuAfroBrasil, a museum that highlights the importance of African people in the formation of Brazilian culture. We found a lot of interesting art and exhibits that explain the link between Africa and Brazil.
This was the most arresting display: The hull of a ship used to transport slaves to Brazil. It’s much smaller than you can imagine. Most visitors just walk around the ship in silence. We’ll talk more about the MuseuAfroBrasil in the podcast this week. If you visit São Paulo, you don’t want to miss this museum.
We’re bracing for Carnaval, which starts in just a few days. Even though Rio is known for the festival, they have a huge parade here and they’re already starting to close off city blocks for the festivities. I’m not sure if we dare go out after dark. We’ll have an update next week.
Don’t forget this week’s question: Have you ever been in town for the “main” event? If so, we want to hear about it.
Brazil Confidential: Waiting for Carnaval (and eating a lot of maracujá)