A dreamlike trip to Brazil: beach vendors at Copacabana

His name is Paulo. He is 43-years old, and he has been walking up and down the Copacabana beach for 30 years. Paulo sells tee-shirts. Over the years, he has learnt to memorize words and short sentences, phonetically of course, in the main tourist languages, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, so he can propose his stuff to anyone he walks up to on the beach, no matter where they are from.

Paulo is standing in front of us. He quickly picks up that we are French, and immediately offers a ‘’promotion’’ (i-e a discount), then a hilarious ‘’liquidation totale’’ which makes us roar with laughter. With a big smile, he displays his supply of brightly colored tee-shirts. The sun and the wind over the years have left their mark on his face. His dark skin is wrinkled and crackled.

The conversation with our new friend quickly turns into a funny mixture of his spoken French, my rudimentary Brazilian, and a new form of English freely revisited so that, we hope, we will understand each other. Quite a spectacle, no doubt.

Paulo lives in a favela. The look in his eyes suggests that life has not been a smooth and peaceful path. But the beach is his workplace, and he loves it. It is his beach. At sunset, Paulo will return to the favela, and tomorrow morning, he will come back down to Copacabana, and he will be here, like every day, as the first tourists arrive and choose their spot under the sun.

All day long, we will see Paulo pass by many times, in one direction and then the other, tirelessly repeating the same moves, walking up to some tourists when his senses tell him there could be an opportunity for a sale, then walking away with no sign of displeasure or capitulation when, in spite of his best effort, he has not succeeded in selling a piece of his inventory.

From time to time, Paulo will take a cigarette break with his beach-vendor pals: there is Luciano who sells bikinis, Sylvio who offers football jerseys from the famous Brazilian clubs, Carlos who carries pareos, Antonio, Raimundo, Rodrigo, Mario….Quite a colorful bunch!

As it happens on this quiet day of Thursday, July 31, 2014, in the post-World-Cup Brazilian winter, the beach vendors almost outnumber the tourists and sunbathers!

Business must be slow today, most certainly not as good as in the summer, but no matter what, the beach vendors come down every day anyway, to the same starting point, and do their drill.

A very old man, short and thin, is selling handbags made by his wife in the favela. The bags are made of the small rings which are mounted on top of soda tin cans to open them.

There are some women as well, although not quite as many as men. They sell bikinis, pareos, bracelets, necklaces, hats…

As a matter of fact, it is possible to buy a lot of different things on this beach! And this never-ending circus of beach vendors may come a little bit as a surprise to the unsuspecting tourist upon arrival at Copacabana!

Around lunch time, the vendors selling shrimps or sandwiches make their appearance.

Vendors of ice cream, peanuts, or cold drinks come and go all day long, and so do the sellers of caipirinha, the famous Brazilian cocktail which is a mix of cachaça (a hard liquor made from sugar cane juice), cane sugar and lime. It’s delicious, although a little treacherous under the warm Brazilian sun!

A bit further away, two strange creatures with huge, round buns are showing off their sun tan. Men? Women? Both? Hard to tell…They spend hours watching themselves in a small carry-on mirror, and push away every single grain of sand which is sticking to their skin.

Be it in Brazil or elsewhere, it is always interesting (and sometimes quite entertaining!), to watch the comings and goings and doings of people at the beach. But here at Copacabana beach, it is really fascinating to observe this little local economy at work.

At sun set, some of the vendors will settle on the promenade which runs along the beach to continue their business.

Of course we will end up with a couple of pareos and a full set of bracelets which will make nice gifts when we return to Paris. Good job, Copacabana beach vendors!