By the beach and pool
The day we came back from
Angra was Holy Thursday
and Leo Rios Pereira had constructed
the Last Supper
in sand on Copacabana Beach,
it was so cool!
(photo copyright Associated
Press)
As seen from the balcony off
the business center of the hotel,
Copacabana Beach just getting
started on a Saturday morning...
Copacabana (the longest of
Rio's four main beaches--the others are Ipanema, Leblon and Leme)
was teeming with life on Easter
Saturday. Robijn and I both found it hard to read
at our usually high vacation
rates; there was too much action to watch on the beach!
These enterprising folks set
up a beach bar offering chopp (local light beer),
caipirinhas
(lime juice, sugar and cachaca, Brazilian sugar cane liquor)
and the electrolyte-replacing
agua
de coco. Brazil is refreshingly free of the
rules and regulations that
govern all attempts to have fun in the U.S.
And everybody cleans up after
themselves!
Close-up of bar ingredients
These drummers seemed surprised
I wanted to take their picture.
Don't they have percussionists
on the beach where I come from?
No they don't!
We also bought some cool drums
for Tim's drum teacher Mark
from a Rastaman with knee-length
dreds at the Hippie Market in Ipanema.
Praia means beach
The waves are big and strong;
swimming in Rio takes some guts.
Typically lovely Brazilian
girl,
holding a plastic bottle she
will fill with fresh water to drink or wash the salt off.
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These girls were cracking
themselves up playing one of those rhythmic clapping games all pre-teen
girls enjoy.
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Liese and Tim stay out of
the very hot sun under an umbrella.
This compelling, unsmiling
little girl was selling delicious salted peanuts wrapped tightly
in paper cones. Without leaving
our chairs, we bought food, drink, clothes, jewelry
and local handcrafts from
vendors who walk the beaches all day long hawking their wares.
We especially liked the distinctive
call of the "Aguameloncia!" (watermelon) man.
The hotel as seen from the
beach
The pool at the hotel, literally
just steps away from
the free public beach but
a whole different world
Liese and Robijn at breakfast,
poolside
Liese was a real fish, she
put in a lot of hours in the water.
She even managed to perfect
her underwater handstands.
Deb and Tim chillin' by
the pool for one more hour before we go out
for our last dinner in Rio,
a Bahian seafood variation of the traditional meat churrasco.
While Liese stays in the water
until the very last minute...
Finally, she dried off, Tim
had a last
Guarana
and we were, alas, outta there.
Muito obrigada (many
thanks) to our driver Marcello, who also took the pictures of all four
of us on Corcovado.
Marcello was a great guide
and even brought us all the way out to Angra and back in his comfortable
Ford Jeep.
E mas um muito obrigada
to Robijn's former secretary Eliety for making all the arrangements for
our fantastic trip!
On to Corcovado/Pao
do Acucar
On to Angra
dos Reis
On to the Botanical
Gardens
Back to THP
