Around Brazil in Four and a Half Hours

That's how long it took me to walk through (and see a fraction of it!) the Contemporary Rural Brazil Expo this past Saturday before my feet said "enough." I wish I could have spent double the time; I still wouldn't have seen it all. Hundreds of exhibitors from Acre to Rio Grande do Sul came to Rio de Janeiro to showcase their products and crafts; these are all families or cooperatives that make anything from organic coffee and cachaça to bright yellow farinha de mandioca to bacuri bonbons; goat cheese and yogurt; cookies and biscuits; salted cashew and cumbarú nuts; pepper jelly and sauces; every salami and sausage known to man; baskets and placemats from buriti palm; juice and jewelry from açaí, gorgeous capim dourado handbags, baskets and bracelets; necklaces made from tiririca seeds and coquinho; handbags decorated with babaçu nuts sliced and polished; handwoven hammocks and fuxico pillowcovers; and handknit scarves that Barney's buyers would kill for (I'm the proud owner of one of them now). I could go on for at least three more paragraphs filled with exotic names, but you get the idea: the biological and cultural diversity of this country is astonishing. The place was crowded with Brazilians eager to shop and try the different foods. I didn't hear too many languages besides Portuguese, which is too bad. I wish the hotels had filled vans and minibuses with foreign tourists. It's not often that one has the chance to tour this immense country in a few hours and under one roof!


The young lady in this photograph came from the state of Tocantins, representing the artisans from the Jalapão. I went there in 2005 and it's still one of my favorite places in Brazil. I had just bought a bunch of these bracelets when she dropped them on the floor. Notice that even her sandals are made of capim dourado...