Observations - Beachwear & Beachlife

Following on from my last post about the glorious weather here, what better subject to move to than the beach!

Now, as a couple of people (of the male variety) had made some comments about this, I thought I should point something out, Brasilieiras dont sunbathe topless/naked here... The bikini's may be really small, but they are always worn! It seems that women here don't care at all about tan lines, quite interesting as it's such a different point of view from the western world!

For guys, speedos is the most common attire for the beach... Some do wear board shorts (especially the surfers) but it's mainly speedos. It seems quite fashionable to wear brightly coloured, patterned speedos. It's really odd seeing these big black guys wearing almost-but-not-quite-fluoro pink or green speedos with palm trees on it!!! I took this photo to capture the mayhem when the tide comes in and you're at a cabana, but I realised I managed to get one of the aforementioned speedos too!

Sorry it is a bit dark so hard to see but if you click on the picture it should open a new window with the pic at full resolution - all the better to appreciate it my dear ;)

And the beachwear isn't confined to when you're 'beaching' ie swimming and chilling on the beach. As I mentioned, most mornings I for a run along the beach (the promenade bit next to beach) and I remember being somewhat taken aback to be passed by this dude going for his morning run in nothing more than speedos and sneakers! I know, we are less than 30m from the water and he may well have wanted to go for a swim after, but still! Oh and seeing as though there aren't any pockets in speedos, you just tuck your wallet/keys into the waistband! (I'm sure you can appreciate why I haven't got any photos of this!)

Another interesting point, in Salvador, people dont sunbathe by the typical lying on your towel on the sand at the beach - pretty much all beaches have the restaurants/cabanas with plastic garden chairs for seating so when you want to sunbathe, you just move your chair into the sun and kinda slouch in your chair...

Hmmm, nothing like lounging in the sun in your plastic garden chair! (Apparently ppl do lie on the sand in Rio, according to Flavio, my Carioca colleague)

Another part of beachlife is having lots of people coming round selling stuff and what they're selling varies quite a bit. You get jewellery, CDs/DVDs, kangas (sarongs), hammocks (they're really popular here!) and food too.

Some of the food they sell makes sense - you buy it to eat then and there like cocado (a sweet made from dried coconut) or queijo quente (literally hot cheese, a block of rubbery (but tasty!) cheese which, the seller holds over some coals to heat/melt and then tops with some honey or oregano before handing you to enjoy! mmmmm!). But anyway sorry, back to topic, some foods for sale seem really odd. For instance, the dudes that come by selling fresh (and I use the term loosely) shrimp or fish... I mean would you buy any uncooked seafood at 2pm from a dude that's been walking up and down the beach in the hot sun all day?

This young fella with the Cocada he was selling (and if you look carefully, you can see he's giving me the ubiquitous Brasilian thumbs up!)

More ramblings coming soon... :)