By Peggy Sue McRae

Journal contributor

It was good timing on our part to finish up our nearly yearlong pilgrimage across the north of Spain, the Camino de Santiago, and find ourselves in Rio de Janeiro just before Carnival! My sister Sally and I signed up for virtual treks through the app Conqueror’s Challenge. It is a fun way to keep clocking our step counts while learning about distant places. I may be doing Chair Tai Chi in Friday Harbor, but I am clocking my steps at the end of each day onto a map of Rio. Thanks to Google Maps, I can then see where my steps have (virtually) taken me. In the spirit of Rio, I am now doing my Tai Chi to the gentle sway of Bossa Nova music.

Carnival in Rio begins Feb. 13, the Friday before Ash Wednesday. It is the last big blowout before Lent. In Roman Catholic tradition, Lent, the 40 days before Easter, is a period of abstaining, traditionally from eating red meat. The day before Ash Wednesday is Fat Tuesday or, in French, Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday is your last chance to eat bacon before Lent! As February is also Heart Health Month, giving up red meat for 40 days might not be such a bad idea. Even the word Carnival originates from the Latin, carne (meat) vale (remove) or “farewell to meat.”

While it is celebrated all over the world, no one does Carnival like Rio de Janeiro. Rio’s top samba schools, out of over 100, compete during Carnival with extravagant costumes, dancing, drumming and amazingly magical floats. The top prize of Carnival champion brings with it coveted prestige. Each samba school represents a Rio neighborhood or small community within the city. Rio’s Sambadrome, designed by world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, provides the venue, a long, broad runway with stadium-style seating on either side to both view and participate in the parades at the heart of Carnival. Performances inspired by Brazil’s history, culture and folklore are said to be carefully guarded secrets. Rivalries between samba schools can be fierce.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are halfway between winter and spring. It seems like a great time to get out our feathers and rhinestones! The Conqueror’s Challenge sends us “postcards” as we reach certain milestones on our virtual trek. The most recent included a recipe for Feijoada, a national dish of Brazil. The recipe is more complicated than I will ever cook, but I note that it includes smoked pork chops, pork shoulder, chorizo sausage, a ham hock and bacon. Fitting for a “farewell to meat” Carnival meal!

I’m still thinking about taking up the 40 days with a no red meat Lenten challenge. Pretty sure my doctor and my cardiologist would approve. With the caveat that seafood is not included in the abstention, it hardly seems like a sacrifice. As a Buddhist with a Protestant background, observing Lent was never part of my tradition, and yet who among us would not benefit from a period of purification and renewal? Meanwhile, party on!