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BRAZIL TRAVELOGUE
1 -
The Road to Iguacu
2 -
Iguassu Falls Nat'l Park
3 -
Macuco Boat Safari
4 -
Iguazu Falls Rest.
5 -
Foz Tropicana Aviary
6 - Rafain Churrascaria
7 - The Road to Noronha
8 -
Fernando de Noronha
9 - Sueste Bay Snorkeling
10 - Farewell to Fernando
11 - The Road to Rio
12 - The Hippie Market
13 - Sugar Loaf Mountain
14 - Copacabana Palace
15 - Too Much Gluten
16 - Botanical Gardens
17 - Buzios
18 - Copacabana
19 - Ipanema Beach
20 - Plataforma Show
21 - Corcovado Mountain
Travelogue Main Page
BRAZIL
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COPACABANA
BRAZIL TRAVELOGUE - DAY
14 - RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL
Walking the Boardwalk in Copacabana. |
After our
back-to-back late nights, we opt to sleep in this morning
and take it easy. Around 10:00AM, we head down
the street to
Cafeina
Ipanema for a nice, much-smaller-than-last-time,
breakfast, then we walk down the street to Av. Vieira
Souto (the beach boulevard). We walk along the
boardwalk along the street, gazing at the mostly-empty
beaches on this cloudy morning, and exploring the street
scenes. We pass incredible sand sculptures -
meticulously created castles, women, and scenes out
of sand, many people walking their dogs, and as we
near Copacabana, we see many surfers out in the
water.
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The sun has come out now, briefly,
so the beach has already started to fill in as we stroll
through Copacabana. There are beachside kiosks
every couple of minutes - quite a lovely place for a
morning walk. We come to the end of the boardwalk,
and cut over onto the main street of Copacabana, Av. Atlantica. |
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Here
we see several tourist shops, entire malls selling
nothing but precious and semi-precious stones and
jewelry, which Brazil is famed worldwide for, particularly
Amethyst, Opal and Topaz. After browsing a
while, we decide to take a taxi down to the Copacabana
Palace and explore that area, since Copacabana is
quite a walk. We stroll the streets, looking
in shops, especially shoe stores of which there
are an endless supply, until we stop for lunch at
a restaurant on Av. Atlantica called La Maison.
We order some pasta which is average (fairly
tasteless) and some onion soup, which was NOT
French onion soup as we knew it (we assumed
since we thought we were in a French
restaurant...).
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Eating Lunch at La Maison in Copacabana.... |
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It
was an OK place, and one time we had six waiters
all waiting on us at the same time, in typical
Brazilian Style. After
lunch, we take a taxi back to the apartment to rest
for a while before heading back out to eat.
That evening, on a recommendation from Marcelo as
"The Best Pizza in Rio", we decide to try
Capricciosa Pizza and Wine Bar on Rua Vinicius
de Morais. Kicki leads the way, insisting
she knows the way, and of course we end up "doing
some sightseeing" as we pass it by several blocks.
It gives us a chance to see the beauty of Logoa,
and scout out some excellent looking restaurants,
however. Eventually the Bertil and I take
over and we find the restaurant. |
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Kicki & Bertil at Manoel & Juaquim in Ipanema. |
Once at Capricciosa,
there is a wait to get in - a very popular place.
It is elegantly appointed, and full of people.
There is no smoking inside - a nice change (for me)
from the usual smoky restaurants. The Pizza is
quite good, very authentic Italian-style, and quite
expensive at about $20 per person. For our money,
though, we preferred the non-authentic but delicious
pizza we had at Boteco Belmonte across from the Hippie
Market the previous week.
We didn't
feel nervous at all walking around Ipanema at night
- seemed peaceful, fairly well lit, and a pretty normal
residential area - not unlike home.
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We walk
back to Rua Farme de Amoedo and have drinks at
Manoel & Juaquim and chat. The place is packed
as usual - a very nice place to sit outside on the patio
and chat. After a while, I become unconscious
and we decide to call it a night. |
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Continue to Day
15 - Ipanema Beach
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