Ipanema

We survived the night. Didn’t get much sleep due to the guy next door. He had the light on whole night (remember the hole in the wall) and was talking to himself or someone really quiet the whole time.

Anywho, we packed our bags in the morning. Stig had a shower (there were electric cables going into the shower head, he managed to get out alive :D) And then used our best excuses and got out of there.

But first, some pictures from the area.

It was 10 am and 20 degrees outside. Felt nice.

We were walking along the Ipanema beach as people were getting ready for their day on the beach. Already at this point the beach was full of people. We were surprised to see a lot of runners. Turned out that there was some running event.

Our plan was to walk as much as we could along the beach towards Copacabana (where our next hotel is located) and then take the taxi further.
We managed to walk through the whole beach and even climb a small hill in the end, then we bought coconuts for refreshment.

Copacabana

Copacabana is much wider than Ipanema beach. Here they have divided the beach up to two sections. The part towards the street is for beach volley and football and the part towards the ocean is for sunbathing.

There are a lot of people playing beach volley and my Olympic supervisors are also expecting a huge party in and around the volleball arena if Brazil makes it to finals. And the party will be even bigger if they win.

They are celebrating 20 years of beach volleyball in the Olympics and it really does feel like the best venue to be a volunteer at. Excited!!!!

The beach front is full of small eating places and people trying to sell you all sorts of stuff, mostly related to Brazil and the Olympics. They also have a lot of different flags hanging everywhere and today i finally found an Estonian flag, it was at a very expensive restaurant. 🙂

There are also different photo spots along the beach. Locals are using them as good business places for asking money. They have placed cardboards on the sand figures saying that for one photo you take, you should also support him. Not bad of a deal. 😀

Our little upgrade

As I mentioned before, we were walking along the Ipanema beach to Copacabana area. Our new hotel is located around 500 m from the beach with a rooftop pool and bar area.

We got a good deal from booking.com for Windsor Plaza hotel and we are very satisfied with our upgrade to a place with stars and a complimentary breakfast. Hopefully, we don’t get used to sleeping in a bed that can fit 4 of us. 😀 This is what a real vacation feels like.

Although I have to admit, I am very surprised about how easy it is here with WiFi. You can get access at any hostel, bed & breakfast and even on the beach. That’s how addicted we all are 😀

These were our adventures today. Tomorrow, we’ll start discovering the Sugarloaf mountain or the Jesus statue. So far we have only met really kind, smiling and helpful Brazilians that greet you when walking past you in the morning 🙂