We set out early to explore Rio on our own -- our main objective was to have lunch at the Garota di Ipanema, the bar where the famous "Girl from Ipanema" song was penned by Vinicius de Moraes.
Taking advantage of the jewelry store free shuttles, we arrived at the Ipanema showroom looking for carved birds, but were disappointed in the selection.
On our way to the beach we discovered a small handicraft shop where we chatted with the two salesladies, and happily shopped for almost two hours! Their store was filled with a variety of merchandise ranging from unique paintings and art to hand crafted necklaces to more common pottery, dolls, trinkets and postcards.
They had 'balangandaes,' a cluster of silver or alloy gourds, fruit and figures formerly worn by slaves. A slave was given one of these charms whenever he completed a task exceptionally well, and his value increased as his collection grew. An owner might think so highly of his slave that he would award him a fist, which meant we was now free. If he died before earning a fist, some of these figas might be sold to pay for his funeral because they were usually made of silver.
Next we found our way to our destination restaurant -- what fun it was! It was 2 blocks from the beach, and a steady stream of beachgoers paraded past our window. A delightful old peddler also passed a silver evening bag over the window box for us to buy. On close examination we discovered it was made of soda can pop tabs crocheted together. In pidgin Portuguese we understood that his wife did all the crocheting, and we negotiated a deal for 6! Watching him figure the quantity discount, and then the conversion to dollars, passing a pen and scrap of paper back and forth, was totally entertaining and worth the price we finally paid!
The walls of the restaurant were covered with various old newspaper articles and photographs referring to the famous song and author, along with a mural of the music and words to it. The friendly waiters were colorful, and served the food with flair.
After walking along the sand of Ipanema Beach and watching the surf breaking, we returned to a different jewelry store where Stela finally found and bought a beautiful carved toucan.
Tired and happy, we came back to the ship for a Brazilian BBQ and Folklorico show.
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