Bicycling in Rio

Our plan for Monday, our last day in Rio, was to rent bicycles in the morning and spend a few hours on the beach in the afternoon. Our hotel gave us a tip on the best place to rent bicycles. It was actually a combination laundromat/bicycle rental. The man who operated the bike rental is a native New Yorker, and he was very friendly. He thought I had a New York accent, and asked how long I had lived in New York. I hated to disappoint him, but told him that I had never lived in New York. After some friendly conversation, we rented two bicycles and were on our way. By the way, the cost of living in Rio is so cheap that our bicycle rental ended up being about $4 an hour in US Dollars. Not a bad deal.

Our plan was to ride around a lagoon that is located nearby and then ride along the beach back to our hotel. To get to the lagoon, we had to ride through some city streets with some very heavy traffic. When we got near the lagoon, we had to cut across the six lane highway and get over to the bike path that encircles the lagoon. From there, it was a nice, relaxing ride along the lagoon with great scenery of water and mountains as a backdrop, and some tropical palm trees sprinkled in for good measure - a true nature's paradise. There were many parks and playgrounds along the way, where moms and small children gathered. When riding along, the two landmarks that can always be spotted are the Christ the Redeemer Statue and Sugarloaf Mountain. They are just a part of the fabric of Rio.

















After circling the lagoon, we headed to Ipanema and rode along Ipanema Beach. This beach was made famous in the Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song, "The Girl From Ipanema". Apparently the story is that a Brazilian composer and a Portuguese poet saw a girl on the Ipanema beach and were so heart-stricken with her beauty that they immediately composed this song. The song was written in 1962, became a worldwide hit in 1964, and won a Grammy in 1965. 

"Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking... " It has been said that if you have a song that you can't get out of your head, then hum The Girl From Ipanema, and that will do it.

Here are some pictures of Ipanema Beach.






Ipanema Beach runs right into Copacabana Beach, so we kept riding from one to the other and ended up at our hotel. A few blocks from there, we returned the bicycles to the laundromat/bicycle rental place. Here are a couple of pictures of Copacabana Beach.



 


Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 11, 2023 at 11:40 AM

    If you hum “the girl from Ipanema” and that doesn’t do it you could hum Barry Manilow’s song “Copacabana” just trying to be funny! You’ll have fun!
    Watching from Louisiana!
    Ellen Hutchinson

    ReplyDelete

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