A week-end in Rio

Copacabana beach at night
All work and no play! Not a good idea. So, between my week of work in Argentina and the two weeks work in Brazil, I took the week-end off in Rio de Jernero. I flew from BA in Argentina on Friday morning and landed in Rio around 11 in the morning. Before leaving home, I booked airport transfer in Rio. I had booked (what I thought) was a shuttle bus. It was quite expensive, but what can you do. I had selected the cheapest on line option. When I arrived in Rio, I could not find anything with my name on or any indication of shuttle bus. Oh well, spent about R500.00 but could not find anything. Decided to do one last sweep of arrivals and there was my name! Turns out I had booked a Limo service, so big black car arrived and off to my hotel. Driver was great. Could not speak English, but had a translation app on his phone. Nice drive from the airport into the beach area of Rio.
Copacabana beach from the Orla hotel top deck

Orla Hotel
I had booked into the Orla hotel on Copacabana. I do all of my hotel bookings on www.bookings.com. There is also a very nice app for your phone, which I use most of the time. The Orla hotel was a very nice hotel. Rooms were small, but very clean and the hotel is very well situation. The Copacabana beach is just outside the door and it is a short walk to Ipinema beach.  This was one of the cheaper hotels along the beach front. Very nice view from the pool deck on the 13th floor. After settling in, time to explore. It was a public holiday in Brazil. It was their Independence day. The beach was packed! All along the beach from are little stands, well, to be more actually little eating places. Shade, chairs and you can get something to eat while overlooking the beautiful beach. Great way to spend an afternoon. I ordered a plate of prawns and a beer. Really enjoyed both. The view along the Copacabana was also amazing. I am not the thinnest person on the planet, but some of the people on the beach made me feel quite good about yourself. Never let being grossly overweight stop you from enjoying the beach in your bikini or speedo! Some very interesting sights!
Sellers on the beach
Nice meal with a good view

In the evening I went out to get dinner, found a nice place around the corner from the hotel called Eclipse steak house. I ordered a nice looking dish and a beer. The beer was ice cold in a frozen glass. I often have a beer when I travel. I really like a good red wine, but I have found that in many places you can spend a lot for wine, and you are really not sure of the quality you will get. I have yet to find a bad beer! When the dinner arrived, it was massive. I could not finish it. It was strips of meat, yucca chips, cheese and a few other things. Really nice, but way to much to finish. Eating in Brazil, as I was to find out out is a big thing and they eat a lot of meat and very large portions. I did a post of the food in Brazil which you can see on my Facebook page, or my Pintrest page or directly on the blog at www.passionatetraverler.blogspot.co.za

Very good breakfast at the Orla hotel
The next day I did a full day tour. I will cover this in another post. This can also be found on the above links.
Sunrise in Rio

The Sunday was another very busy day on the beach. There was obviously an election coming up and there was much electioneering. I think the candidate which throws the biggest beach party wins the election! The one candidate had a huge truck which was set up as a stage with massive speakers and festive music blazing.  It all seemed good natured, but a very strong police presence indicated that it might not always be that pleasant.
Pop-up market next to the hotel
Pop-up fish shop

In the street next to the hotel, a pop up market was set up. This was mainly a fresh produce market, with pop up fish monger and butcher as well. All very clean and neat, where the day before was a busy street. Beautiful fresh vegetables and fruits as well. I just loved the way that they peeled the pineapples! While waiting to check out for my late afternoon flight, I went off to Ipanima beach. A really beautiful beach. The tour guide the day before said that Ipanima was the better beach and she was right,
Sand castles

All to soon my weekend in Rio had come to an end.

Ipanima Beach

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