We decided to spend the day just relaxing and walking around the beaches :) We took the local bus from our hostel which is near Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas towards Ipanema. We got off at the foot of the lake and walked towards the beach.
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| View of Cristo from the lagoon |
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| Biking path of 7.5km! |
We went to
Ipanema Beach which I found nicer, plus it's less crowded than Copacabana. The waters are also much cleaner there since it's further away from Guanabara Bay.
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| Beaches just a few steps away from the city. What a life! |
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| No crowd in the morning :) |
We rented chairs for just R$5!, and you can use them the whole day.
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| Famous bikini vendors patrolling the beach |
It was a really nice and sunny day :)
We had lunch at a snack bar and did a little shopping for postcards, Havaianas and a Harry Potter book in Portuguese for my collection, then headed back down to walk along the beach.
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| Walking down Ipanema, almost 3km |
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| Cute woman making caipirinhas at the beach |
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| Walking towards Arpoador, at the end of Ipanema |
At one end of Ipanema is
Praia do Arpoador, which is a surf spot (Copacabana is around the corner).
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| Surfers at Praia do Arpoador |
We walked up
Ponta Arpoador where you can get a nice view of the whole stretch of Ipanema.
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| Ponta Arpoador |
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| Ange and I with Ipanema behind us |
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| Surfers at Praia do Arpoador |
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| Ipanema |
We walked up to the main road and headed towards
Copacabana.
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| Walking down Copacabana in the late afternoon |
After Copacabana we took the metro to Botafogo and walked towards our hostel. As we were walking by, we spotted a really lovely bookstore
Livraria da Travessa (Rua Voluntários da Patria, 97 Botafogo).
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| Bookstore plus a small café on the second floor |
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| Children's section |
We spent awhile browsing inside then had a small dinner on the way back, and packed up our stuff since we're leaving the next day. It was a lovely and relaxing day walking around Rio.
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