Day 9 -- Rio Again

Today I must have walked for at least 8 hours. My friend wasn’t feeling well so early in the morning I went for a walk on the beach by myself. Actually there were people walking and jogging there already. After an hour walk, I went to breakfast (I forgot to say that I’ve been eating passion fruit for breakfast every day both here and in Bogota, as well as drinking passion fruit juice and eating passion fruit yogurt). After breakfast, I decided to walk to the tourist information office which was supposed to be near the Copacabana Palace hotel, the oldest hotel in Copacabana, but I actually had to walk much further to Princessa Isabel street. I got a lot of good info there and sightseeing tips. From there I walked to the end of Copacabana, which is a big hill with a scenic walkway around it and an old fort on top. Unfortunately the fort was closed today, but I will probably come back to see it tomorrow. From there I walked back to the hotel, mostly on the beach. When it got too hot, I crossed the street and saw a store with interesting looking bags. It turned out to be a store of a (supposedly) well known Brazilian designer Gilson Martins who makes things only from recycled materials and employs people who live in favelas. The guy there spoke good English and told me the story of the company and also treated me to passion fruit juice with some Brazilian alcohol, which was very nice. Of course, I had to buy something… In the afternoon, following the tourist info guy’s recommendation I walked along the beach through Ipanema and Leblan. They are totally different than Copa – lower buildings, mostly residential with very few low-key hotels. Then I cut through to the lagoon and I was supposed to follow it to the left to go to the botanical garden. But by the time I got to the lagoon I’ve already been walking for 3 hours and it was already 4 pm and the botanical garden is only open till 5 pm. So instead I followed the lagoon to the right and eventually ended up in downtown Ipanema. Wow. It was like Beverly Hills. Posh stores, bars and restaurants, well dressed people and there I was in my tourist attire. I sat down in one of the cafes to rest and have some ice cream and coffee and then continued walking along this long commercial street called Visconde de Piraja until I got back to Copacabana.