Kathleen
Brazil – Rio de Janeiro
May 22, 2014
Rio! A place that has seemed so crazy, exotic and far away for my whole life! We were excited to finally get to Rio. We rented an apartment from which we could see the statue of Christ the Redeemer right from our deck…this made it somehow seem very real. The first day, we headed for the beach in Ipanema, which was the area where we stayed….yes, this is the Ipanema the girl is from. The beach is long and sandy and lovely and we just enjoyed sitting and reading and dipping our toes in (It was late and seemed a little chilly for swimming). Unfortunately, our spell of really great weather was at an end because it proceeded to rain on and off for the next 3 days and this kept us from doing a whole lot. We did get to go out to the “Samba” area of the city and have dinner in a 4 story samba hall. The dance floor was on the first floor, but there was an atrium that went to the top floor and you could look down on the dancers….Steve and I even gave it a whirl! We also got to walk through the area where the bohemian night life lives on a Friday night, and it was very lively and loud and full of young folks hanging in and out of the many many bars, pubs, restaurants and so forth.
We got around to some museums, ate at some local Ipanema favorite restaurants, and had a pretty great time. Luckily, the sun came out again (off and on) on our last day so we headed up to the Christ the Redemeer statue (we took, the train, we had too much to do that day to do the walk, unfortunately). This was really an amazing experience….and what a view!! It was still overcast, but the clouds were high and we could see the entire city in 360 degrees around us. It is certainly an inspiring excursion. We went from CtR to Copacabana Beach, where the sun came out again. We walked along the black-and-white tiled sidewalk (there is a walk along the whole length of both Ipanema and Copacabana beaches) and since we didn’t have our bathing suits on, we stopped for lunch and a coco gelado at a beachfront cafe. The day not over, we decided to walk back to our apartment, change into beach gear and enjoy our last couple of sunny hours on the beach again. The beaches and natural landscape of Rio is just stunning, and the town itself seems to have something for everyone.
Greatly enjoyed our stay!
