Friday, 21st January, Rio de Janeiro, Raining, 21 degrees

We woke up to rain and when we went up on deck visibility was even less than yesterday. We did a few laps but there were signs of maintenance and painting works, so we curtailed our walking. Down below us people could be seen going off to their various tours with their umbrellas up and the drab hues of English rainwear…..

What a good job we have a mainly indoor pursuit today. We are going to a local market (let us hope it is indoor!) and then we are going to have a cooking lesson with a chef and eat the meal we cook. We certainly lucked out on our choice of entertainment. The rain was of deluge proportions all day and, given that drainage is not a prerequisite in Rio as it does not often rain, the roads were soon flooded.

Our tour in the end was made up of 5 people, Keith and I, two other new people to us (where do these new people keep appearing from?!?) Linda and Stewart, and a young Rumanian member of P and O staff who is doing the cruise as a holiday. Leonardo, the guide joined in too to make up the numbers.

The bus, once again, had to trek to the furthest part of town from the port to get to our cooking venue, but today it had the advantage of providing us with the opportunity to see the Copacabana Beach on the way to the Ipanema Beach where our cookery lesson was to take place. Luckily we weren’t taken to the market as we would have become very soggy….

As it was. after donning our banana coloured wet weather gear again to get to the dock terminal, we were only briefly in the rain, Result!

On our journey to the Ipanema district, which is considered the most upmarket area of Rio with the best hotels and shops, Leonardo gave us a brief history of recent Presidents, the power of the military and the Supreme Court.

Brazil certainly seems to have had its fair share of extreme Presidents! We heard of one who shot himself when the military said he could not stand for a fourth term. but not before he had built a broad Main Street he named after himself and knocked down a number of beautiful churches to do it. He was a big fan of Hitler apparently so he styled his road on the road Hitler built in Berlin. Another more recent lady President rambled on apparently in such a way that no-one could understand what she said. The current chap is more to the left, but also has his failings….

Rio feels like a huge city and has many large and imposing buildings. It also moved its water front out and built a beach, marina and park as an exercise to help the traffic flow,,,,, It certainly seems to undertake projects on a grand scale! Beaches seem to play a key part in everyday life – although there was not much sign of it today. Having said this a few stalwarts could be seen playing volleyball on the sand despite the weather and the lifeguards were at their stations. Copacabana Beach is 2.5 miles long.

We eventually arrived at where the cooking class was going to take place. It was a small kitchen with no windows, so the weather didn’t matter for the several hours we were there. Our teacher was a young lady chef called Erica who was keen to share with us some Brazilian recipes including Moqueca the dish that Keith and I had in Buzios.

The first thing we made was Caipirinha, a drink made by taking a whole lime, cutting it up into quarters, then adding a measure of cachaca (a local spirit made from sugarcane) and a spoonful of sugar. This is pounded in a glass then the glass is topped up with ice. A lid is placed on the glass and the whole thing is shaken vigorously . You then drink it with a straw. It is delicious!! (Even better when you add passion fruit as well. Ed)

Next up was Cheese bread rolls. These are made with cassava (yucca) flour, There is no kneading or yeast involved. You just mix the flour with egg, salt and lots of grated cheese and roll the paste type mixture into small balls and cook them in the oven. Brazilian cheese is very soft, but I think they would be even more tasty made with a strong cheddar or blue cheese. (Guests to Gregory Towers may well be invited to try them. Ed)

Erica then demonstrated the way to make the tapioca crepes that we had in Salvador, only she made them with just cheese and a sweet one. Both crepes were made by putting tapioca in a dry cold pan, The tapioca forms a crust and the cheese, Nutella or other sweat filling can be added.

Keith then took on the making of the chocolate pudding called Brigadeiro. This is made from condensed milk, milk cream another type of yucca flour and chocolate, This is cooked together until it forms a thick, dark chocolate sauce which is then left to cool for an hour and then you add either chocolate sprinkles or dried coconut sprinkles. (A chocolate lover’s delight Ed)

The coup de gras or main feature of the day was the Moqueca. The version Erica created was made with monk fish and prawns which Erica pronounced ‘shrump’ which I really liked as a term. It is a fairly simple but healthy dish and is served rather surprisingly with a banana accompaniment. Sounds odd but it tasted really good.

It is comprised of red, green and yellow peppers cut into thin strips, tomato cut into strips, finely sliced onion and two small peppers, seeds removed, and then pieces of monk fish and prawns. Half of the peppers were put in a a liquidiser with coconut milk and coriander stalks and blitzed. The onions were then cooked in olive oil and the remaining peppers added then the puréed pepper and finally the fish and tomatoes are added. Coriander leaves were placed on top of the ingredients in the pan and the lid is put on.

When cooked it is served with a mix of garlic, dried coriander and dried onion which has been cooked in a dry pan until it has become crisp. Sliced banana is then chopped and rolled in the mixture.

It was such a lovely combination, It was served with rice which had been cooked with chopped onion. The combination was excellent.

Yummy! And what a great way to spend a wet Friday in Rio de Janeiro – cooking some of Brazil’s national dishes and then eating them.

At that stage we did not know that it had continued to rain all day and that the streets were flooded.

Our route home took us passed the only church that survived the Hitler influenced road builder President

Incidentally there is now a new Cathedral that has been built at the other end of the town very much after the style of a Mayan Pyramid

And so we arrived back at the ship where the rain continued to come down in torrents. We had done too much eating today so decided not to go down to dinner. We therefore do not know how our dining compatriots have fared today. We have a day trip in São Paulo tomorrow so we may miss them again.

The Aurora left the harbour at about 6.00 and there was just a glance of the Redeemer statue above the cloud as we left – a similar view to the one we had two days ago when we came into Rio.

I popped up to the promenade deck to get the last view of Rio…

Then we took our route out to open water as the sun was going down….

Tomorrow, Sao Paulo