We decided to have a nice slow day today. We started with a late breakfast here in the hotel and decided over breakfast that the main thing on the agenda for the day would be a walk to Ipanema, a few kilometres from our hotel in Copacabana Beach.

It was about midday by the time we set off and we had a very pleasant walk along Avenida Atlântica, which is closed to traffic on Sundays. This gives the area a really great feel, with lots of people out and about. There’s a great mix of street vendors, musicians, bike riders, roller bladers, scooter riders, joggers, and pedestrians. Oh, and there’s plenty of police! In fact, we’ve probably never seen so many police (including military police) on the streets of a city.

The walk to Ipanema took us a bit under an hour. We walked along Ipanema Beach and then took a detour to a cafe called Veloso, on Rua Vinicius de Moraes, where we stopped for a drink. Veloso is the cafe in which Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim frequently observed a pretty seventeen-year-old girl passing by and immortalised her in a song called “Menina que Pasa” (“The Girl Who Passes By”). The lyrics were written in Portuguese in 1962 and it was not until a recording session some time later in New York that the idea of an English version of the song was produced. The song went to number 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart in 1964 under its new name, “The Girl From Ipanema”.

At Ipanema Beach.
At Ipanema Beach.
Andrea at Veloso.
Andrea at Veloso.

After enjoying the atmosphere in the bar, we then headed back along Ipanema Beach and back down Avenida Atlântica to our hotel. Once back at the hotel, we had a short rest before changing to go out again.

We left the hotel early evening and headed downtown to Rio Scenarium Pavilhão da Cultura, a dance club with a live band playing traditional Brazilian music. It felt like the club was in a pretty sketchy area but our driver advised that there were police stations at each end of the little alley we had to go down, so there was no need to worry about our safety!

We enjoyed a drink and some traditional Brazilian food while listening to the band (who were unbelievably loud!) and watching the dancers on the dance floor. Once couple in particular was incredible and we were mesmerised by their dancing. Despite feeling slightly intimidated, we did eventually get on the dance floor and do our best to blend in!

At the dance club!
At the dance club!

When the band finished playing their set, we headed back to the hotel to retire for the evening.

Tomorrow is mostly just a travel day. We’ll be leaving the hotel late morning to head back to the airport to catch our flight to Buenos Aires.