Day Three in Rio

Yesterday was such a full day that I neglected to include one of the best views from Corcovado – that of the Lagoon off Ipanema and Leblon beach. The track in the lower right is the horse track (hippodrome).

Today we set out on foot to the south end of Copacabana. From our hotel, which is pretty much in the centre of Copa, that was about four kilometers. At the beach end is the Copacabana Fort that is an operational fort with fortified bunkers and large swivel guns protecting the harbour entrance. We stopped here for coffee and juice and watched the standup surfers search for waves.

As we left the fort the fishermen had just brought in the day’s catch in their small boats. They were repairing their nets and selling their wares in a little makeshift market.

There was still lots of action on the beach with most girls wearing what the Brazilians call “dental floss”. Apparently the reason why most young Brazilian girls are carrying a little more “junk in their trunk” is because that’s the way Brazilian men like them. Classic! Every hundred metres or so there were also sand castle builders extraordinaire.

Our route back to hotel took us two blocks up from the beach to the main street of Rio with all of its bustling commerce. We thought we should top up our Brazilian currency and had difficulty finding a bank that would accept our bankcard. Four institutions later, we finally succeeded with the Citi Bank. We arrived at the hotel in time for lunch and chose to eat on the hotel terrace around the pool. This was our idea of lunching on the beach, Dawn in her bikini and me on my computer. We had lunch and tried the Brazilian drink specialty the caipirinha that is a delicious lime drink made with cachaca, the Brazilian sugar cane liquor, not unlike rum.

The next photo is a significant one. The wave pattern in the walkways along Copacabana symbolizes the waves of the Atlantic. There are three colours of stone used in these patterns – white for the Portuguese, black for the African slaves brought here by the colonists and red (not seen in this picture) for the aboriginal people. If you go to Ipanema the pattern is more geometric but the colours of the stone remain the same.

We walked back to the night market tonight and Dawn had fun with her try-ons. We thought we did well with the steps yesterday, but topped 17 000 today. We feel we’ve got to get the walking in before we hit the days at sea, where we can walk, but it won’t be nearly as interesting. On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped for a drink at one of the beach cafes. I finally had the coconut water, which was ice cold, but not as coconuty as expected.

For dinner, we returned to La Trattoria and once again shared, this time, a caprese salad and a garlic fettuccine. We have the tried the Brazilian wine – red and white – and although not offensive and definitely not expensive, it’s also not remarkable. Tonight we had an Argentine malbec – delicious – gotta try more of those at home.