Just a day at the beach

This morning, our first real day in Rio, we decided to do that most quintessential of Rio activities.  We decided to hit the beach. Saturday, (yesterday) when we were at the beach at Flamenco and Botofogo, they were pretty much empty. Today was Sunday, maybe Sunday is beach day, so we decided to try a different set of beaches: Ipanema and Copacabana.

We took a taxi from our hotel to get to Ipanema.  To get there you head south and pass through the Copacabana neighborhood.  Rio's neighborhoods are separated by mountains, one neighborhood from the next. To get from one to the other you pass through a tunnel and each time it is like passing from one world into the next.  Our first experience of this was coming from the airport,   passing from Central Rio to our neighborhood, Flamenco.  Central Rio is definitely a different place. That is where you see the most rundown neighborhoods, the old industrial areas and of course the famous Favelas. As soon as you passed through the tunnel to Flamenco you're in a nicer neighborhood - better shops, tree-lined streets - you can tell the difference. It was a little surprising but once again when you pass through the tunnel from Flamenco to Copacabana, again you enter into a different world. Copacabana and the Ipanema are definitely a cut above. The tree-lined streets just a little bit better The apartments are little bit newer.   The security gates around the doors are little bit stronger. It's where the rich folks live. 

At the end of Ipanema  we jumped out of the cab.   We'd driven to the south end where Ipanema butts up against about the next mountain and where most likely there's another tunnel to another world. But Ipanema was worth the journey in itself. We walked across the street which normally would have been consumed by four lanes of traffic. On Sundays they close it down for pedestrians and pedestrians seize the opportunity. Bikes, rollerskates, skateboards and loads of people just strolling.   It was a day in the park and we hadn't even hit the sand. And the sand is something else. It is as white as can be and very clean. We had seen the beachcomber tractor on for Botofogo beach on Saturday running up and down sifting the sand.  Something that seems like a daily chore for Rio's municipal workers. Their Beach is an asset, and they manage it carefully. Down the beach the water was blue not polluted as Botofogo's bay had been. There were loads of people - surfers, children swimming,  lots of people playing in the water. The water  was cool, but not as cold as the water at Ocean Beach in June.

And then there were the people on the beach. They were a sight to behold. Everything you have ever heard about Brazilian beaches is true. Need I say more? Probably not, but it's me, so I will. I don't think they sell two piece bathing suits in Brazil. Everybody, I mean everybody, wears a bikini - men just don't wear the top. Some of them, it suits them well, some of them, not so much. But nobody seems to care and that in and of itself is quite refreshing. People did not seem to be at all self-conscious about how they look in a relatively small piece of cloth. It made for an interesting day. Yes, we spent pretty much the whole day strolling from the south to the north end of Ipanema  where it ends and Copacabana begins.

 Copacabana Beach is where the FIFA Fanfest for Rio will be located and so as we got towards the south and the soccer flavor of city certainly became much more noticeable. The entrepreneurs who sell you a chair and an umbrella for the day were competing to see who could have the most flags of the 32 World Cup finals visitors. Some seem to specialize in Dutch flags or Croatian. Those teams seem to be particularly well represented here in Rio. The  Fanfest area itself was a sight to behold. Here it is just three days before the kickoff of the first match and if you asked me if it looked like it was about half done.

Will they be able to pull it off and have it ready for the first match on the 12th? It is probably not that important whether they do or they don't, I suppose. Across the street from where the Fanfest would be held there was sports bar where we had dinner. They must've had seven or eight large flatscreen TVs, tonight they were showing a variety of Brazilian fare but come Gameday I'm sure the place will be packed and the TVs will be on the Brazil game. It might be a better place than the Fanfest anyway.  Cold beer and air conditioning beats sun and humidity for me.