You should know, that when you’re in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, and it happens to be Corpus Christi, and a national holiday, that certainly, somewhere, the world will be full of people out in full religious fervor ready to celebrate.

What you may not realize, is that they will slowly filter onto the metro, so that you don’t even notice their presence, until a chanting, a singing and finally a full-on jamboree started happening all around me. To be honest, I hadn’t a clue what was happening, until I kept on hearing O Senhor tatatata (drumbeat on the metro seats). I was also unaware that these first dozens then hundreds of people would get off the metro with me from the blue line, at Metro Tiradentes when I was innocently headed to the Pinacoteca (museum, more on this later), and they were ready to join thousands of like-minded people in an enormous parade that spanned a six-lane street and went on for hours. It did not ruin my enjoyment of the Pinacoteca, the nearby gardens, the museum of the Portuguese Language and all of its video/multimedia excitement, nor the beautifully restored Luz train station, though it did make me wish I’d brought a voice recorder, not just a camera so I could share it in multimedia.

and now, as promised: a photo