Hitting the Beach in Rio de Janeiro

Trip date: January 2016

Our Airbnb was just 3 1/2 blocks from Copacabana Beach in the Zona Sol area of Rio. It was so easy to head down and rent a cheap chair and umbrella that for me it didn't matter if I spent the day or just an hour! I wanted to be on that absolutely beautiful sandy stretch, the waves crashing, the views of Sugar Loaf in the distance, people enjoying their friends and family. This is the postcard view of Rio that the world sees and indeed it is gorgeous.

One cloudy but warm afternoon Forest, Thibault, and I headed to the beach to hang out for a while and get a bite. As I mentioned when I wrote about Ipanema, beach vendors in Rio sell an amazing variety of snacks and beverages. After watching the parade of choices go by, we decided on grilled cheese "kabobs". This man carried a cooler in one hand and a portable charcoal grill in the other. He placed skewers of a firm cheese, similar to halloumi, on the grill and after they were warmed and marked by the grill he dipped them in dried herbs. Brilliant. Also can you imagine carrying a hot grill around all day?

We also watched as a group of young men, armed with cases of beer and huge bags of ice, spent some very productive time digging a big pit in the sand. They systematically layered the beer and the ice in the pit, putting a final layer of ice on top. Satisfied with their work, they sat back and enjoyed their cold beer from their "Brazilian Ice Chest" as I called it since I had seen this done on Ipanema as well!

Some days the beaches seemed to have lots of tourists, while other days it was mainly locals. One day when Thibault and I went down late in the afternoon the waves were huge and most people stayed out, heading the red flag warnings. Others decided the fun was worth the risk.

But most days the beach was just peaceful and perfect. I didn't swim as I am very aware of both the water pollution problems and also the undertow that takes swimmers out even in calm conditions. Just being on the beach daily, with its perfect breeze and stunning views was heaven for me.

And always there was the parade of vendors and their offerings; empanadas, caipirinhas, cookies, bikinis, shrimp (!), beach blankets, etc.

There's more to Rio than the beach of course. If you find yourself there on a Sunday, the thing to do is the Hippie Fair in Ipanema. It's a big fun, open air market which sells a lot of the same clothes and jewelry that you see on the beach, but also some local artwork and crafts. It doesn't take long to walk around and you might even find a new painting to take home!

Just down the street from the Hippie Fair is Casa de Feijoada. Now typically Cariocas eat feijoada, the national dish of Brazil, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But I'm not a Carioca and I was hungry. We arrived, put our name on the wait list, and grabbed a few beers at the bar next door. Finally we were called in for what ended up being an absolutely delicious and super fun lunch.



The menu starts with a light lime cocktail and a small cup of super tasty black bean broth. From there you choose which meats you prefer for your feijoada stew (we chose to not have pig ear, feet, or tongue) and then a ridiculous amount of food comes to your table. There are sides like rice, manioc, both fried and sauteed, cooked greens, oranges, and chicharrones.

To finish they brought us a plate with three slightly unappetizing looking "jams" on it. They were incredible though; dulce de leche, banana compote, and coconut and pumpkin chutney. We were full for hours!

Many would say no trip to Rio is complete without getting up close and personal with the two big attractions- Sugarloaf and Jesus. Could also be a great band name. In any case, I'd agree they are more than worth the effort.



We took a cab to Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar as the locals call it) for about R18, and got there at 10am right before the lines got crazy long. The views from both the mid and upper areas are absolutely spectacular. We spent about an hour taking it all in and wandering around.

You can also sign up for helicopter tours over Rio from here. We watched a few take off, the rides are pretty short but I'm sure it's an incredible sight!

The next day we took a taxi to the train station that heads up Corcovado to Christ the Redeemer. We bought our train tickets in advance online which saved us standing in massive queues at the station. The train heads up a very steep slope, passing a few favelas, and lending dramatic views of the sea along the way. After about 20-minutes we reached the top and headed up a few stairs to where Jesus stands.

Again, the views of the city below are incredible. And the statue is pretty impressive as well. I especially enjoyed sitting for a few rounds of caipirinhas; it isn't every day you get to drink with the big guy after all!

A friend had advised doing these two attractions on different days and I think that was a good move. It was nice not to be rushed and to get to each before they got super crowded.



Rio also has the most amazing sunsets I have seen. The one on Christmas Day from our roof top was a very nice intro. It's also great to join the crowds and experience seeing it from the beach itself. Kate and I opted to enjoy sunset one evening with drinks at The Arapoador Hotel Ipanema beachside bar. I'd recommend you do the same!

Besides spending time on Copacabana Beach, we also spent a very nice afternoon at the Copacabana Palace Hotel. The place is swank, and they have impressive manners. In fact I think their manners kept from inquiring if we were actually guests there while we enjoyed lunch and Thibault took a dip in the pool on an especially hot afternoon!

Back on Copacabana Posto 5, the folks at Barraca Das Morenas 156 took great care of me. Since I was making a daily habit of coming here, they knew when they saw me that I wanted an umbrella, a chair, and a cold caipi. They knew my name by the 2nd day, calling out "hello Wendy!" as they wrote down my "order" and set me up wherever I wanted.

When I said goodbye on my last day, the guy responded as normal, "see you tomorrow Wendy!" I told him I was flying home that night and he seemed surprised. He came around the stand and gave me a big hug, walked me up to the street to the faucets where you rinse your feet, brushed all the sand off of mine and helped me put my Havaianas on before telling me how much they'd miss me and to come back soon.



I had read that when you go to the beaches in Rio you should find a good kiosk or barraca first. People pick their beach spots by the service they get at these little businesses. I had certainly found a great one.  Go visit 156 if you are in Copacabana and tell them Wendy says hi!

All Rio photos here

Fireworks Over Rio

Trip date: December 2015

Rio likes to party, everyone knows about Carnival and the elaborate fête they throw, but the warm up attraction for the Cariocas is New Year's Eve. Specifically the massive party that is held on Copacabana Beach.

After spending Christmas on Ipanema Beach and hiking around Iguazu Falls in Argentina, I flew back to Rio de Janeiro with my friends on the night of December 30th. We landed at the airport around 8:30pm and the place was packed! The queues for the prepaid cabs snaked the length of the arrivals terminal. Luckily it moved pretty quickly and soon we were on our way to our Airbnb in Zona Sul. It seemed like a lot of people had the same idea as us, flying in the night before the big party, as traffic was a nightmare. 1 1/2 hours later we arrived at our building, found our way up to the apartment, and were greeted by our host who spoke little English but was quick with Google Translator!

We had a spacious 3 bedroom (all with air conditioning), 2 bathroom apartment just 3 blocks off of Copacabana Beach. Perfect!

It was late and we were tired, so we headed down the street to pick up an assortment of pastries stuffed with meat, cheese, and veggies and brought them back to the apartment for dinner before crashing early.

The next day was sunny and hot! We decided to have lunch across from the beach at Garota (they have one in Ipanema that we ate at also); some chilled white wine, two orders of pão de queijo (cheese bread/puffs), and a few excellent fish dishes made for a wonderful lunch. We ordered too much food, not realizing that the entrees were family style portions. No worries, they boxed up our leftovers and we took them back to the apartment.

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping. First for groceries, along with what seemed like the rest of Rio. Everyone was stocking up for that evening's parties and the next day's hangovers. We were doing the same. One thing is that you can buy hard liquor in most grocery stores, unfortunately we only saw vodka, cachaca, and bad whiskey in most. The lines were insane! One of us stood in line while the others shopped and even then we still waited for 30 minutes!

Next up was Havianna shopping. Haviannas are made in Brazil and everyone wears them everywhere. They are also sold everywhere; newsstands, grocery stores, actual Havianna stores, as well as numerous flip flop shops. And the prices are pretty similar with the exception of some special designs sold exclusively at the Havianna store.  We found a shop called MG Bazar (at R. Silva Castro, 65) that had a really good selection, some good sales, and a little lower prices on certain styles. Havianna shopping completed!

It was late afternoon now and the streets were filling up. People spilled out onto the sidewalk outside of bars, many getting a head start on the night. The city had put up extra garbage cans on every single corner as well. We stopped in a few more shops for last minute items and then went in search of ice.

All day we had seen guys on bikes selling huge bags of ice, it isn't sold in any of the grocery stores we went to, but when we sent Thibault out to look for the bicyclists he didn't come across any. We asked the doorman at our apartment and he pointed us just 2 blocks down the street. There was a small queue and the only thing they sold were 10 pound bags or more, for $10. So we paid for our bag of ice and Thibault hauled it home.

Unfortunately once home we saw that it looked dirty; we googled all the words on the bag only to find out it was not for consumption! We didn't need a bag of bottle chillers, we needed good ice to stir cocktails. Fail.

We filled up the ice cube treys with bottled water, opened a nice bottle of bubbles and had a Skype call with our friends Matt and Vio who are sometimes travelers on the NYE trip. Then we played Exploding Kittens while fireworks started to explode outside. There was a favela on the hill behind our apartment building and the parties there were getting in full swing. You could also hear the sounds of people starting to party down near the beach, as well as see and hear a huge helicopter keeping an eye on things. I have to admit that I felt a tad bit of nervousness mixed with excitement, 2 million people were expected on the beach that night. Seattle has a population of 680,000. So there's that!

Around 10pm we headed off to Copacabana, all dressed in white as is tradition, with a backpack of champagne and fun plastic new year's flutes I had found earlier. The streets will packed with people, also all dressed in white, streaming towards Copacabana Beach. We were a little alarmed to find a firetruck in front of our apartment, apparently there had been a fire in the building next to ours, luckily they had put it out.

The beach was a solid mass of white! Many people had added accent colors to attract different kinds of luck. The one we saw the most was yellow which is for money. We were at the west end and could see the full stretch of the beach. There were a few big stages set up with live music, and the beach vendors who normally ran their stands only during the day, were busy setting up beach chairs and making caipirinhas. Out in the bay, cruise ships were lined up for the big show. People sat on the sand or in chairs, some had lit candles and had dug out little shrine areas in offering to the goddess Iemanja.

Once we had chairs and cocktails acquired, I think we spent about $10 each, Thibault and I walked through the crowds towards one of the big stages to check out the music. Along the way we passed people selling all sorts of drinks, snacks, champagne, and of course bikinis! The area around the stage was packed! Everyone singing, dancing and having a great time. Thibault took this fantastic panorama photo.

It took us a while to get back to our chairs, in fact we only had time for one more round of caipirinhas before it was time to break out the bubbles. 10, 9, 8, 7... Feliz Ano Novo!

The fireworks exploded, the barges out in the bay spread out over the almost 2 1/2 mile stretch of the beach front. They weren't unique in their height or their style but I had never seen such a spread out show before. I loved it!

By the end a haze was sitting right on top of the cruise ships, the night was still and hot. People were having a great time, continuing to party, some jumping waves in the surf, and things seemed calm and safe. Hard to believe with that many people, but we didn't have a single problem nor did we ever feel unsafe.

We headed back to our apartment, mixed up some martinis with our now frozen ice, and looked forward to a new year; out with the old, in with the new 2016!

In the morning we started things with a wonderful breakfast complete with mimosas. So maybe not out with everything old!

Rio photos here