Meet a Carioca Monday

My new friend André

I'm starting a new trend for Monday posts here on Rachel's Rantings in Rio.  It's Meet a Carioca Monday. I will be introducing you to a new Carioca (Rio de Janeiro local) each and every Monday, when I remember.

Each Monday guest will answer one simple question.  It's like playing the getting to know you game only with far more people and over a long, drawn out period of time. Yay for you!

Today we will meet André. He's the serious man above.

André sells bread from his bike. Oh yes, you heard me right. People buy bread from a dude on a bike.

Anyway, very nice man who was completely confused when I approached him, barely understood my fabulous Portuguese, and still said yes to asking a question. Got to love Brazilian hospitality!

His question: What do you love most about Rio de Janeiro?

His answer: Pão de Açúcar. (Sugarloaf for the English speaking crowd)

 The blushing beauty in all her glory

Got to love a man who loves the view of his city! Of course he could have chosen the beach, the ladies, the beer, weather, or anything else. But no, he loves the beautiful natural landscape.

Not saying anything but that makes me think he was a bit confused. That and the weird expression and long drawn out silences.

Regardless, great answer!

Now all I need to do is find a Portuguese teacher before next Monday.

** Thank you to my wonderful blogger friend at http://impossiblyglamorous.com/ for this great idea!

Groceries without leaving the house, got to love it!

I love a stocked kitchen! I love putting all the food away and seeing my cabinets full. How could it get any better? Well, it could be delivered right to your door in separate freezers bags and boxes.

Daniel and I started bulk shopping to try to lower our grocery bill.  Food in Rio de Janeiro, especially Zona Sul, is ridiculously expensive.

Great plan and a total pain in the ass. I have two kids and a husband that works. The carts at the store don't always have a place for the kids to sit, not to mention the tiny isles and dodging of other shoppers.  We started driving to larger, nicer stores.

I know loading your kids up in the car, driving for 45 minutes to Barra, spending another hour and a half shopping (2 if the kids really give you trouble), then loading everyone and everything back up to go home sounds like fun, oh for sure, but it's not.

Sorry for sounding like a commerical but I now use Pão de Acucar online shopping. Not the mountain, the grocery store.  Google it.  You'll get pictures of the mountain and links to the store.  Win win situation.

Anyway, they rock!  I've tried Zona Sul online shopping but it sucks.  Pão de Acucar comes when they say they will and they have special little bags for freezer and fridge stuff that are labeled.  Everything else comes neatly packed in boxes.  When my stuff arrives, I'm in anal organization heaven.  Well, as anally organized as anything in Rio de Janeiro can be.

So yeah, I pay an extra R$12 for delivery and Pão de Acucar is one of the most expensive grocery stores in town.  But I'm sane! How much is your sanity worth?  Mine is definitely worth a R$12 delivery fee, about R$30 in higher grocery costs, and an hour or two online.

That last part is a bit annoying.  The site is organized but still a bit difficult to maneuver.  It almost has too many categories and is in Portuguese.  Portuguese? What are we, in Brazil or something?

But you manage!  And for you Moms out there, it means that you aren't stuffing your kids full of chips you wouldn't even have normally bought just to shut them up long enough to pay for your food. Not to mention all the stuff you have forgotten because you were distracted by your pre-schooler's questioning of fat and old people.  Thank goodness he was speaking in English!

Check it out Pao de Acucar