The Beach

After our bicycle trip, we went to get some lunch before hitting the beach. Our go-to guy at the hotel, Jay, recommended a place that would give us an authentic Brazilian experience. We went to a restaurant called Churrascaria Palace. There is a buffet for side dishes - of which there are very many - but the main dishes, the meats, are brought to your table. In fact, they're brought to your table on skewers, and the waiters will slice off a piece of the meat right there at your table. They give you a small set of tongs, so that as the waiter is slicing the meat, you can grab it with the tongs.


There were many different kinds of meat that were brought to your table: chicken, fish, beef, lamb, sausage, pork, and something they called Cowboy steak. All the food was delicious, both the meats and the foods from the buffet.

After lunch, we finally made it to the beach. We noticed every morning at breakfast how early people are out on the beach here. We usually went down to breakfast at 6 and the beach was already in full swing. There were exercise classes taking place, people jogging, and just people already out sunbathing. There are guys that rent chairs and on the way out to the beach they pull a cart carrying the whole pile of stacked chairs behind them.

Getting ready for a day at the beach


The hotel we stayed at provides towels, chairs, and an umbrella set up on the beach. After getting settled in our chairs, we enjoyed the beautiful ocean, sunshine, and some interesting people. The most amusing part of the beach experience was the vendors. They would walk up and down the beach selling all kinds of things. And there were very many of them. There was probably one that came by about every 30 seconds. Some of the vendors were selling the usual things that you might find at a beach: drinks, beach towels, hot dogs (on a stick, not a bun), and plastic shovels and buckets. Then there were the unusual items, as many vendors peddled the following items: corn on the cob, shrimp kabobs, tablecloths, shirts, straw hats, throws and/or blankets, sunglasses, soccer balls, soccer shirts, swimsuits, caps, sandwiches, homemade brownies, bikinis, jewelry, lanyards, shawls, whistles, mini wading pools, balloons, and many unidentifiable items. 

Vendor selling bikinis on the beach


When we returned from the beach, we went up to the rooftop of our hotel, where there is a swimming pool and also some spectacular views of the beach and mountains. 







We are so glad that we decided to come a few days early and spend some time in Rio. Our time here has been short, but filled with great sightseeing adventures. We really love Rio!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Selaron Steps

Image
After we left the Metropolitan Church, we went to the Selaron steps. This world-famous mosaic of unique tile steps was done by Chilean born artist Jorge Selaron, hence the name. He called it "my tribute to the Brazilian people." Jorge didn't intend for the steps to become such an icon, he merely began by renovating dilapidated steps in front of his home. As Jorge was an artist, he thought it would be fun to use colorful tiles. At first he was mocked for the tiles, but as he continued covering more steps with tiles, ceramics, and mirrors, people not only began to appreciate the display, but visitors from all over the world began donating tiles to the project. There are 215 steps and over 2000 tiles that were collected from around the world. We happened to spot a couple of tiles from New Orleans. The artist - self portrait
Read more

Sambadrome and Metropolitan Church

Image
After we left the Christ the Redeemer Statue, we drove by the Sambadrome, where all the activities for the carnival in Rio take place. The Rio Carnival is said to be the largest in the world. Unlike New Orleans, the Carnival doesn't consist of street parades. Rather, all the activities take place within the Sambadrome outdoor arena. People gather there dressed up in costumes to view floats and celebrate before Lent begins. Various groups are responsible for the floats. In New Orleans, they're known as Krewes. In Rio, there are different classifications of groups, but they aren't called Krewes. They have the fancier groups and the less so, and are classified as divisions, according to Guilherme. He used the example of American college football, like Division 1, Division 2, etc. These groups decorate floats to display within the Sambadrome. The only street activities are street parties that happen within neighborhoods, with as many as two million people out on the streets eve...
Read more

Lapa and Santa Teresa

Image
Two well-known neighborhoods in Rio are the Lapa and the Santa Teresa neighborhoods. The Selaron Steps that were featured in the previous post straddle these two neighborhoods. After leaving the tiled steps, we drove through parts of these neighborhoods.  The Lapa area is a Bohemian neighborhood known for its art, bars, music clubs, dance halls, antique stores, and restaurants.  The Santa Teresa neighborhood is a hilltop village with winding narrow cobblestone streets and hairpin turns. There are beautiful vistas of the city below as you wind your way up to the top. Lining the streets are boutiques, hotels, artist studios, restaurants, and a few mansions. Guilherme took us to a restaurant in the Santa Teresa neighborhood. We didn't catch the name of the restaurant, but it was a small, quaint, open-air restaurant in the heart of the bustling neighborhood.  The restaurant where we ate lunch Since Guilherme was local, we told him to order for us, and that we wanted some auth...
Read more