Cloudy Day in Rio

Ola! It’s been a few days as, as I write this, we have actually moved on to our next destination. More of which later but for now I need to catch up with our last day in Rio.

We woke up to a full on cloudy day and it was 10 degrees cooler at about 21 degrees. Quite a relief..especially after our big night out💃🪩

So…what do you do on a cloudy day in Rio? Well, we decided that we’d get some exercise and take in the sights along the entire length of Copacabana Beach. Our hotel was located at one far end of the beach near to the Fort and today, we walked all the way back to the rock at the other end which is actually an area called ‘Leme. We walked all along the promenade, the other side of the busy Avenue Atlântica. It’s 4km in length and has the famous wave pattern of the Portuguese pavement made in small black and white tiles.

As you walk along there are lots of street vendors selling their wares and today I was in search of a Kanga (or beach wrap). There were lots of colourful ones to choose from and I finally managed to do some excellent bargaining with a guy to get the one I wanted! Poor man looked really fed up and I thought he’d be pleased that I’d gone back to get it, having walked away earlier!

You also pass lots of the volleyball nets but what was mostly being played was a version called FuteVolley where 2 pairs play each other and can kick, head and chest the ball but not use their hands!

There are lots of the beachside kiosks each with their own theme but to pretty much the same design which keeps it quite tasteful. As this was Friday there were several with live music playing …actually I don’t know…they could possibly do that any day of the week.

At the far end, Leme, it got a bit quieter and I wasn’t sure we should carry on but then we saw more ‘normal’ people and so, determined to complete our stroll, we walked to the end. Here the walkway finishes but a smaller path goes along at the base of the giant rock right by the waves. Now this did look a bit dodgy so we didn’t go along there but stopped and admired the view back. As we were doing so there was a bit of a commotion with people running and 2 guys on a moped speeding along the path bipping heir horn and waving people out of the way. I thought it all seemed rather villainous but it turned out they were life guards as the next thing we saw was a jet ski also with 2 lifeguards speeding along to the waves below the rock where they then proceeded to pull 3 young guys out and onto the beach! I think they’d been diving in to surf but then the current was too much. So that was our bit of excitement and we turned and headed back in the other direction.

On the way, we passed the restaurant that we’d booked to eat at later that day. It was called ‘Marius’ and looked very flamboyant even in the daytime! I’ll let Jane tell you about that later….

We tried to pop into the very grand Copacabana Palace Hotel. However, the top-hatted doorman was having none of it and we got shooed into the next door ‘Momo’s Cafe’ where we had a coffee and delicious ice cream. I tried avocado flavour which was a delicious revelation! Jane had all things banana!

Despite not being very accessible the Belmond Copacabana Beach Hotel is indeed, very grand and has been voted the top hotel in South America several times. It was finally finished in 1923 and celebrating its centenary this year. Over the years it has hosted many famous celebrities including Walt Disney, Brigitte Bardot, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Madonna and Princess Diana. But they wouldn’t even let us use their loo.

In a slight huff we mooched back along to our end of the the beach and walked on to the Fort where there was an interactive Frieda Kahlo show. We decided we didn’t need to bother with that or the Fort itself so went back to our favourite kiosk opposite our hotel where the guy had previously tried to rip us off for 4 beers. The bill should have been £6.50 and he tried to charge Jane £18.33 which she politely corrected having realised his mistake. Recognising us today, he greeted us like old friends!