Summary
Rio de Janeiro is one of those great birdof-paradise cities that gets into your bloodstream at first contact and won't let you go. Like Venice and New Orleans, the place positively thrums with charisma; neither Carioca nor turista is immune to the city's sultry vibrations, the captivating music, the coming-together of jungle, mountain and curving white seashore. A primary aspect of Rio's (and Brazil's) appeal is that it's a completely different experience from the rest of Latin America. While neighboring countries embrace the language, rhythms and foodstuffs of Spain and the continent's myriad native cultures, Brazilians chat in Portuguese, move to the beat of the samba (a hypnotic marriage of Portuguese fado and Angolan percussion) and inhabit a multicultural society not unlike the United States' but with a libidinous abandon largely lacking among its more devout neighbors (Brazil's brand of Catholicism follows the Italian model more closely than the Spanish). And most importantly to us itinerant gastronomes, Brazilians dine on dishes fragrant with coconut, yams, palm oil and other African ingredients that have adapted well to Brazil's jungle-and-savanna topography and are seldom encountered in Argentina, Bolivia or Peru.
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Extract
'River of January'
Rio de Janeiro is one of those great birdof-paradise cities that gets into your bloodstream at first contact and won't let you go. Like Venice and New Orleans, the place positively thrums with charisma; neither Carioca nor turista is immune to the city's sultry vibrations, the captivating music, the ...
See the full content of this document
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