Feria Nordestina.

In São Cristóvão there's a stadium-like building filled with tents and I had seen it a few times from the bus. I admit that I was a bit bewildered by it, there were clearly no seats and the tents were obviously covering the whole of the area so I could not decipher it in any way. Then I heard that it is a market, purpose-built to house the stalls of merchants that descended to Rio from the north-east of the country decades ago.  And I payed it a visit last week.

What a wonderful place it is. Completely different from anything else I've seen and since I have not visited the north-east (other than Bahia) it was all new to me. Restaurants are in the majority but you can find pretty much everything else. From food and house-ware to booklets of traditional myths and stories, sometimes biographies (or is it hagiographies?) of legendary bandits of the previous century. And there's families, kids with traditional costumes, young people with their dancing shoes on, the older generation revisiting the glories of the past. It's vibrant and colourful. And then the two stages, one on either side of the stadium, where the speakers spit out Forro unhealthily loud and the dancing is frenetic! How can you not love this place?

(By the way, besides the normal daily opening hours, from Friday 10am the market is open until Sunday night!)

Hunting in Saara.

The Saara market is a fascinating place. I always loved markets and even-though this one is clearly not the most spectacular I've been in, it has a genuine spirit, a truthful heart and all the right sounds.

Planted right in the middle of the city, the old market of the Arab and Jewish immigrants has sustained itself nicely over the decades. And it has kept much of its character too. As expected you can get almost anything here. The Carnaval decorations and costumes, football paraphernalia, cosmetics, jewelry and clothes, knick-knacks and souvenirs, art shops and the tasty Suco corners are filling most of the streets around it's 8-10 block area. But the real fun is in the self-replicating and condensed center, where electronics, music and the rest are.

The vendors are funny and loud, the shoppers busy and quick, the smells confusing but the sounds your compass, the ground deceptive. And now, imagine all this in the frantic W.Cup fever! Oh boy, this is crazy! And yellow, very very yellow, with fireworks being tested around you and money changing hands invisibly over a beer and a laugh. A funky urban jungle!