RIO, CARNIVAL and the hunt for Indian food
I had always pictured Rio as the Goa of South America, only much bigger and much better known globally. As the largest city in Brazil, and lovely beaches ,it didnt disappoint.
We flew in from Iguacu as the Brazilians spell it, on the evening of the 5th March. We were to be there for 3 full days from 6th to 8th March and board our return flight to the US on the 9th March. The carnival winners parade was on the 8th march evening. We thought it tied in very well with the rest of our program. We had prebooked a city tour on the 6th and a backstage peek at the carnival preparations on the 7th, giving us some time to explore Rio. We had booked a hotel right on the Copacabana beach. Frankly we may have been better off staying a lane or two away, for the price we paid for a beach facing room. More so, during carnival time.
And we were on the city trip the next day. On the agenda, was the Sugar Loaf mountain, Christ the Redeemer, lunch and few other sundry sights.
The sugarloaf mountain is a monolith mountain at the mouth of the Guanabara bay, overlooking the port on the one side and the Copacabana and another beach on the other side. It really does offer spectacular views. It has a cable car to take you to the top. Going to the top and back is a 3 hour experience, including a long waiting period in the queues.
Frankly it was much hype about nothing!
Since we had spent over 3 hours here , we went for lunch, part of the package. Fortunately, it was a buffet and they had a variety of vegetarian options. Brazil was even more difficult to find vegetarian options than BA.
Next was Christ the Redeemer. The concrete statue was completed in 1931 and stands 98 feet in height. The outstretched hands are also 92 feet in width,. It has come to represent not only Rio but Brazil as an iconic symbol.
The exterior
The stained glass interiors
The ceiling
Escadaria Selaron, known locally as the Lapa steps are famous for the work of the Chilean born artist Jorge Selaron. He lived in the Lapa area in a house by the steps. He renovated and decorated the steps as a tribute to the Brazilian people. Apparently he managed to get tiles from all round the world for doing this work.
He raised money for his project by accepting small donations and selling his paintings. Tragically, Selaron was found dead in Jan 2013 on the very steps he decorated .
Indias contribution to the steps
Some folks in the group were keen for a taste of India. for dinner that evening and we found a restaurant serving Indian food with great reviews close by. It was called Curry Se ! We found it was a street cafe with 2/3 tables on the pavement, owned and run by a Brazilian lady. She claimed to make the masalas herself. It had some flavour of India but it certainly didnt qualify as Indian food, atleast to an Indian. It was not bad but not we were expecting.
The next day was the backstage look at the carnival. That was slated for the 4pm. Since we were less than satisfied with the dinner the previous evening, we decided to try again at a different place. This place was called Goverdhan Hari and claimed it was a pure vegetarian restaurant. We thought this sounded right.. It was a long taxi ride and we got dropped of at a city square. Armed with address we tried locating the place and we finally gave up. As a last exasperated try, we asked , rather gesticulated at a newspaper vending shop, who kindly held us by the hand and took us there , right across where he was. The restaurant had no name board and were located on the 1st floor. We went up in a small elevator and stepped into the restaurant. With notices offering yoga at the front desk and soulful ragas on the music system it sounded like the promised land!. We were presented with the menu , all in Portuguese. Not a single staff member spoke English. We finally spoke to a fellow customer who spoke English and insisted on bowing and saying 'namaste' repeatedly but helped sort it out. Apparently, though this was a vegetarian place, they served traditional Brazilian dishes, substituting the beef with suitable veggie options. The food was vegetarian and tasty, but nowhere close to Indian. With a name like Goverdhan Hari, we felt really cheated.💔
The afternoon promised better returns. We were picked up by 3 pm and made it to the back stage. We were given a brief history of the carnival. The first carnival festival dates back to 1723. It begins on Ash wednesday, 51 days before Easter. It was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese through Entrudo, a popular street festival. Over time it developed with use of masks and costumes, a European trait. The costumes became symbolic of the political and cultural themes with time. The monarchy and the elite created carnival societies. During the early 20th century, the Brazilian Afro population, contributed with the Samba along with what remained of the original natives and made it entirely Brazilian. The Africans had a major influence on the Samba with their percussion and rhythm. By this time in the 20th century, it appears that in an attempt to be more European, the police and the administration came down heavily on practitioners of Samba. Due to this, the earlier carnival societies transitioned to Samba schools. This helped to institutionalise Samba and the schools became popular, and it lent legitimacy to the carnival. Over a period of time two sets of schools, minor and major schools evolved.. Today it has elaborate costumed themes and parades which start late evening and go on till sunrise. There are over 100 samba schools in Rio itself. The schools are divided into leagues with the top and the bottom two being elevated and relegated to higher and lower leagues every year. The top league consisting of ten schools take part in the main carnival parade. Preparations for the carnival begin a year before, where the story line, the theme and the colors are decided by each school. The schools are very secretive about their preparations and they are jealously guarded. An independent panel of judges awards marks based on 10 categories. The competition is intense and this year, thats 2025, each of the top 10 teams had a difference of just 0.1 with the next placed team. Each school has between 70 to 75 minutes for their performance with over 2500 performers and a few more thousand back stage.. The Rio carnival now has a permanent home which is designed as a long street with tiered seats on both sides, with the schools entering from one side and exiting from the other side.
Here are some photos and videos from the back stage. This pertained to a particular samba school Grande Rio which had been placed second in 2025. The competitive part of the parade had been held on the tuesday and wednesday and we were attending the champions parade on saturday. By this time the winners had already been announced. After the back story we toured their facilities and met some of the performers. Have a look
The stoarge area
As seen from the 2nd floor
The head gear
They gave us a short lesson but we were woefully incompetent !
We headed back and went our of dinner. Before that, as we strolled on the beach we saw this.
Here is a video too !
I can tell you the booze was real and strong and tasted good. It was only about 10% cheaper than a small restaurant but his servings were large ones. But I loved this concept. All over Rio , we found that liquor was the easiest thing to buy . We could buy it at every tourist spot, on the beach and every grocery store
The next day was the victory parade. We found that the parade would start at 10 pm and would wind up at 6 am. Also the parade would start with the 6th placed team and the top team will come in last at about 4.30 am ! We had the day to spare.
So that morning I decided to hit the Copacabana beach. The sun rose at 6 am and I was there walking the beach. It was a great feeling. There still revellers on the beach from the night before. Some were winding up and taking selfies. Some others were still going strong, sitting on their beach chairs, ice coolers next to them. I watched them wistfully, wishing I was younger !
The morning fog
A drunk drying out on the beach
Since we had the time, we decided to resume our hunt for Indian food. One of the quartet was really desperate for a spicy taste of India. We zeroed in on Delhi Magic. We Ubered our way and got dropped off at the address. Apparently the restaurant had shifted 3 blocks away. We thought our luck with Indian food was continuing. We finally found the place and walked in. After our experiences , we were very suspicious. We asked the Indian guy at the counter about the food and spices and his cooks too. After satisfying ourselves we ordered and a short while later, we finally got the Indian food we had been hunting. After over a month, it did taste good !
Finally it was time. We were picked up by 8 pm and by the time we battled traffic and reached the venue it was 10 pm and the parade had just started. We made our way through the crowds to our reserved seats. Despite the crowds, there was hardly any pushing or shoving and we all made our way easily. Reminded me of the crowds at cricket matches where everyone pushes to go to their seats ! Only our enclosure had reserved seating. Other were free seating and the crowds had been building up from 6 pm for those seats. And we had several Indians for company. Frankly I had not expected that. We had people from Bangalore, Hyderabad , Gujarat and Delhi too. The atmosphere was truly electric with blazing samba music and roaring crowds. !. Truly a fun evening with a mass of international tourists with a mix of the local population.
Beer vending inside the enclosure. Totally next level !
here are some youtube links
https://youtube.com/shorts/Aw41QUTFfEA?feature=share
https://youtu.be/jkmvvwtuRWY
https://youtu.be/kMiJmpFozmI
https://youtu.be/gwYbtWFyYTs
We saw the 2 last placed schools by which time it was 1.45 am. The transport arranged for us was a bus which went to other hotels too and we finally hit the bed a bit after 3 am.. We had a late breakfast and checked out of the hotel , left our bags with the hotel and decided to go to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. They claimed to be the oldest Chinese restaurant in Brazil. Quite a large place, overlooking the beach and lots of vegetarian options to choose from. It actually tasted like Indian Chinese !! Talk about hitting the jackpot 2 days in a row !
The return was fairly uneventful and we reached US via Houston a day later on the 10th March, happy but a bit tired after a hectic 25 day trip. We were glad to finally put our feet up.
It was also fun to bring this trip to all of the readers. It helped refresh my memory and will also serve the purpose when I reminisce about this trip of a lifetime, later on
🙏
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