I'm planning on heading to the wonderful world of downtown (centro) Rio, most specifically Saara. My maid thinks I'm crazy. I have a wonderful maid that comes twice a week. When I mentioned my afternoon plans with her she immediately asked, with Rafa? Rafa is my 17 month old. Of course with Rafa. I take the little monkey everywhere. I guess most Brazilians wouldn't take their baby down there by choice. Well, I'm not most Brazilians... I'm not Brazilian at all. I think that's what accounts for my considered craziness in this country.
Anyway, the wonderful world of Saara. Imagine, if you will, rows and rows of stands selling cheap crap from batteries to hats to underwear to goodness knows what the other things are. Next to that are the stores. Oh the stores. You can get cool baskets, clothes, shoes, beads, souvenirs, everything for world cup celebrations, everything for festa junina celebrations, Christmas decorations, knick knacks, paddy wacks, and probably a dog to give a bone.
It's going to be absolute madness today with the first Brazil game being next week. I figure the sooner I go, the better the situation will be. Keep into consideration that it's always madness down there. At least it's not Carnaval. Saara is the place of choice for Carnaval shopping thus it's insanity that time of year.
To get to this Rio Random shopping land, take the metro and get off at Uruguaiana or Presidente Vargas. Uruguaiana is the best bet. You exit right at the beginning of the fun.
Wish me luck! My goal is to get one shirt for each of my kids and mayby myself. This all depends on the prices. I also want to get some noise makers of some sort and all around fun stuff for the kids to play with while the grown ups watch the game.
Here's a link to Saara's site. Yes, they have one. See, Brazil isn't nearly as disorganized as everyone says. wink wink. By the way, it's in Portuguese: Saara - Fun no Centro
How have your experiences been at Saara? I went a whopping one time with my inlaws and my husband during my first year here. It was fun and colorful and I bought some spices and cooking things and we had a nice lunch at that Lebonese place, fun. But following my husband informed me "I will never go there with you again, I hate that place" and he meant it, we've never been back. I announced in early December that I was going to go to Saara to try to find some inexpensive toys for my son for Christmas and both my husband and housekeeper said I was crazy. And of course, no way would my son be going. Am I that crazy to try to save some money?
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