This Little Piggy Goes to the Market

I live kitty-corner from a large market called Cobal do Humaitá. Or you could say I almost live IN this conglomerate of vegetable and fruit stalls, flower shops, cafés, restaurants, bars, supermarket, crafts store, clothing stores, and the best DVD rental store in Rio (over 9,000 titles and growing, including rare, obscure, and alternative genres). Any day of the week, I'll be coming and going, toting fresh papayas, having breakfast with Rio's daily O Globo for the latest corruption scandal, picking up a documentary I've been wanting to see for ages, buying lunch, or having a caipirinha and gossiping with my neighbors. This whole thing comes with outdoor tables and first row seats to Corcovado Mountain and the Christ statue. The other day the smell of gardenias next to my table almost drove me to distraction. I came running home to grab my camera and here's one of the culprits.

Also pictured here is the lovely young lady who serves my daily espresso and pão na canoa. This expression translates to a small French bread basically reduced to its crust, lightly buttered and toasted to perfection (well, most days anyway). She arrives at work at 7 a.m. from across town and was greatly inconvenienced when a huge landslide recently shut down the tunnel that slices through Corcovado Mountain. This is the main connection between Rio's northern and southern "zones" and its closing for several days caused the city to basically turn into a parking lot (and her bus to take a roundabout way that forced her out of bed almost two hours earlier). I was talking to her about it the morning I took this photo. We were discussing a comment from Rio's inept mayor to the effect that the disaster had only affected people who owned cars. She shook her head, laughed, and went back to work. I hope they all remember this come election time.