We spent most of the afternoon walking around Lagoa (official Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, but I honestly had to look that up because everyone just refers to it simply as "Lagoa"). The salt water lagoon (which looks like a normal lake) is about 7.5km or 4.6 miles in circumference, so it made for great exercise for the afternoon. It was packed with families, runners, bikers, old people, and young (and, again, tons of dogs!). It made for great people watching.
One of the things that we've noticed about Rio is that everyone seems to be extremely active and the government seems to support this athleticism. Along the beach yesterday, there were several metal structures that acted as a place to stop and work out or stretch (with parts made specifically for pull ups, chin ups, etc). Today, on the lake, there was actually a playground that was built to mirror a fitness facility. Both young and old were stopping in their walks to utilize the various recreational structures.
One of the most popular things for locals (aka Cariocas) and tourists alike is to chill out and drink Coco Water straight from the coconut shell. We haven't tried it yet, but it is definitely on our to do list. We must have passed 20-30 different stands today.
We failed in terms of directions. We were going to check out the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Garden) and Parque Lage (a park where Snoop apparently filmed one of his music videos), but somehow totally missed both of them, even though they were only a block off of the lagoon. Our plan for tomorrow is to rent bikes and go back and take our time hanging out at both.
After making it around the lagoon, we swung by the grocery store and grabbed a simple lunch (bread, ham, salami, mozarella, and chips) and came back to the hostel to eat and relax. It was probably about 4pm by the time we went back out and we decided to check out the Hippie Market and see what the beach was like in the afternoon.
The Hippie Market is located in the plaza about a block away from us on Sundays only. The craftmenship at the various booths was very impressive. I think I'm used vendors in Chicago trying to sell knock-offs and junk to tourists; this really showed off some great artisanship. It made me wish I had a larger pack or stronger back so that I'd be able to bring home some of the treasures you could find there - a bit of everything including jewelery, clothing, furniture, sculptures, and paintings.
From there, it was back to Ipanema Beach. I don't know it it was because of the rainstorm last night or if it was normal, but the waves were absolutely insane. Hardly anyone was swimming, it was so crazy. There were a few brave, lone surfers seeing if they could manage to stay afloat - they honestly made me think I was going to witness my first drowning.
Some other cool sights from the beach included hands-free volleyball and a crazy amount of food vendors (coco water - of course, hot dogs, corn, popcorn, churros, and plenty of beer straight from coolers that people were carrying). We walked all the way down to Copacobana, but at that point we were pretty exhausted and decided to head back toward the hostel before we saw too much of it.
We found an awesome restaurant on our way back and feasted on feijao (bean soup), pastel de camarao (shrimp empanadas), and a carne asada sandwich that was to die for. The steak sandwich was about four (thick) layers deep and had some awesome sausage literally cooked into the middle of it, plus some scrumptious melted cheese topping it off. Great dinner after a long day.
Full with a great meal in our bellies, we've made it back to the hostel for another low key evening. Looking forward to renting bikes early tomorrow morning and heading back to Lagoa to actually find these elusive gardens and park.
Talk to you all soon!
- Lauren
because of all the beans......i hope your room has ventilation....miss ya (this is maureen)
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