April 6 – Beaches and Beaches

Pickup was at 9:40.  Good thing it was mid-morning as we are both a bit jetlagged.  The schedule was to go to see the statue, Christ the Redeemer.  However, our guide indicated that there were clouds on the mountain plus there were two cruise ships in town…with massive number of the ship’s guest expected to go to the same place.  So, we opted for an alternative tour and will try to see the statue on a day with fewer crowds and clouds.

Rio has lots of mountains within the city limits and we headed out through some of the tunnels to the Ipanema area and then on to the ocean.  The neighborhoods are really pretty here and so far almost everywhere we have driven we had some water views.

We also saw Christ the Redeemer on top of the mountain…yep, a lot of clouds.

First stop was the Joatinga Beach.  Lovely views…

including an island that looks like a rather large whale.

We were high above the water so had good views.  There was a small beach but the surf was rather rough so I’m not sure how good the swimming would be there today. 

There were some guys gathering coconuts in nearby trees.  One climbed a very tall ladder into the tree, twisted off the coconuts and tossed them to his partner who was bagging them up.

From there we drove down to the ocean for a long drive along another beach in the southern section of Rio.  We didn’t stop for photos here.  The beach looks pretty narrow and the surf rough.

Next stop was Prianha Beach.  It was a rather small beach (compared to some we’ve seen here) but pretty with some rough mountains/cliffs for backdrop...

with islands in the distance 

some rough waves near the rocks...

and surfers out trying to catch waves.

There were a lot of sun worshippers down on the beach.

Rain clouds tired to threated on and off today but other than a tiny and brief bit of sprinkles we had good weather.

A lizard on the walkway down to the beach.

Another long drive back into town…we both snoozed.  We stopped at a viewpoint at one end of a very long beach that is in the Ipanema section of Rio.  Nice views.

We could also see a favela.  Favelas are shanty towns where the residents build their own homes a piece at a time as they have money.    

And we got a look at Sugar Loaf Mountain in the distance.

We were back to our hotel about 1:30.  We decided not to head out for lunch (we had a small snack at the last beach) and just did an early dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Most of the restaurants have outdoor dining…nice since the weather is so lovely.

Back in the room we worked on pictures and other travel stuff.