Days 53 & 54
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sorry for the long stretch without updating. The good news is that basically nothing happened on Day 53 except that I got on a plane at lunchtime in Fortaleza and flew down to Rio. The flight took more than three hours - Brazil's a big country - and we touched down in Rio just before 4pm. It was 6pm by the time I got to my hotel, so I didn't see much of the city the first evening.
I'm here in Rio for four full days, so I didn't feel obligated to rush out on day one and see everything. The city's geography divides it into pretty clearly defined neighborhoods, which makes it easy to explore in smaller bites. I'm staying in the Ipanema neighborhood (made famous by the bossa nova movement in the 1960s) and spent most of yesterday just wandering the area. I started with a four-mile run along Ipanema Beach - the beach is fronted by a wide sidewalk, bike lanes and plenty of kiosks selling food and drinks. Now that I'm out of northeastern Brazil and there's a little bit more distance between me and the Equator, the temperature is back down in the high 70s and it's really, really nice.
After cleaning up and having breakfast I spent a few hours on the beach. For an urban beach, Ipanema is surprisingly clean - it helps that it's in a very well-to-do area and that it faces the open ocean rather than the dirtier Bahia de Guanabana - and the sand is sugar white. Like in Fortaleza and Recife, there are barracas where you can rent chairs and get drinks. Unlike Fortaleza, the barracas aren't huge establishments; they're mostly small tents and there are lots and lots of them.
A few streets in from the beach, Ipanema and its twin neighborhood Leblon are joined by the Avenida Visconde de Piraja, a busy road lined with shops and restaurants and sidewalk cafes. Some of the shops - especially around the Leblon end where things get really nice - are quite exclusive. I won't be visiting those, but there are plenty of regular stores and places to eat. I'm right around the corner from Polis Sucos, a juice bar with acai com granola, my new favorite snack. It's pureed acai berries served chilled (almost frozen like a slurpee) with granola blended in. You can also get tapioca beads, strawberries, melon or any number of other fruits mixed in, or you can have a glass of juice from about 40 other different types of fruits. At about $2.50 per glass, it's not cheap, but it's a lot less expensive than what acai will cost you in the States. Besides the juice bars and shops, there are plenty of other diversions, like the woman I found trying to rid herself of 25 puppies she "found" abandoned in the street. She had them all stacked up inside one of the granny-style grocery carts, which didn't seem like the best way to carry puppies, but most of them were sleeping comfortably and a few were out playing on the street.
Behind Ipanema is the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, a vast saltwater lake ringed by a running path (which I'm planning to tackle tomorrow morning) and plenty of high-rise buildings. Like along the beach, there are also restaurant kiosks, open-air theaters and plenty of other diversions. That's Corcovado in the far distance, topped by the Cristo Redentor statue. Just to the right is the Morro de Cantagalo, which has one of the city's (in)famous favelas on its back side. Unlike most Brazilian cities, where favelas developed on the city's fringes or near industrial areas, in Rio they are mixed right in among the middle- and upper-class areas. Some of them have amazing views across the city or the beaches. The proximity of rich to poor means that Rio has a bad reputation for crime - something I'm trying to be aware of when I'm walking around - but most people seem pretty carefree, at least during the day.
Today I'm planning to head one neighborhood over, to Copacabana and its famous beach. It's an easy walk from here, and although Copacabana reputedly is not as nice as Ipanema, the beach and its view of the Pao de Acucar mountain is supposed to be a stunner.
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sorry for the long stretch without updating. The good news is that basically nothing happened on Day 53 except that I got on a plane at lunchtime in Fortaleza and flew down to Rio. The flight took more than three hours - Brazil's a big country - and we touched down in Rio just before 4pm. It was 6pm by the time I got to my hotel, so I didn't see much of the city the first evening. 
I'm here in Rio for four full days, so I didn't feel obligated to rush out on day one and see everything. The city's geography divides it into pretty clearly defined neighborhoods, which makes it easy to explore in smaller bites. I'm staying in the Ipanema neighborhood (made famous by the bossa nova movement in the 1960s) and spent most of yesterday just wandering the area. I started with a four-mile run along Ipanema Beach - the beach is fronted by a wide sidewalk, bike lanes and plenty of kiosks selling food and drinks. Now that I'm out of northeastern Brazil and there's a little bit more distance between me and the Equator, the temperature is back down in the high 70s and it's really, really nice. 
After cleaning up and having breakfast I spent a few hours on the beach. For an urban beach, Ipanema is surprisingly clean - it helps that it's in a very well-to-do area and that it faces the open ocean rather than the dirtier Bahia de Guanabana - and the sand is sugar white. Like in Fortaleza and Recife, there are barracas where you can rent chairs and get drinks. Unlike Fortaleza, the barracas aren't huge establishments; they're mostly small tents and there are lots and lots of them. 
A few streets in from the beach, Ipanema and its twin neighborhood Leblon are joined by the Avenida Visconde de Piraja, a busy road lined with shops and restaurants and sidewalk cafes. Some of the shops - especially around the Leblon end where things get really nice - are quite exclusive. I won't be visiting those, but there are plenty of regular stores and places to eat. I'm right around the corner from Polis Sucos, a juice bar with acai com granola, my new favorite snack. It's pureed acai berries served chilled (almost frozen like a slurpee) with granola blended in. You can also get tapioca beads, strawberries, melon or any number of other fruits mixed in, or you can have a glass of juice from about 40 other different types of fruits. At about $2.50 per glass, it's not cheap, but it's a lot less expensive than what acai will cost you in the States. Besides the juice bars and shops, there are plenty of other diversions, like the woman I found trying to rid herself of 25 puppies she "found" abandoned in the street. She had them all stacked up inside one of the granny-style grocery carts, which didn't seem like the best way to carry puppies, but most of them were sleeping comfortably and a few were out playing on the street.
Behind Ipanema is the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, a vast saltwater lake ringed by a running path (which I'm planning to tackle tomorrow morning) and plenty of high-rise buildings. Like along the beach, there are also restaurant kiosks, open-air theaters and plenty of other diversions. That's Corcovado in the far distance, topped by the Cristo Redentor statue. Just to the right is the Morro de Cantagalo, which has one of the city's (in)famous favelas on its back side. Unlike most Brazilian cities, where favelas developed on the city's fringes or near industrial areas, in Rio they are mixed right in among the middle- and upper-class areas. Some of them have amazing views across the city or the beaches. The proximity of rich to poor means that Rio has a bad reputation for crime - something I'm trying to be aware of when I'm walking around - but most people seem pretty carefree, at least during the day. Today I'm planning to head one neighborhood over, to Copacabana and its famous beach. It's an easy walk from here, and although Copacabana reputedly is not as nice as Ipanema, the beach and its view of the Pao de Acucar mountain is supposed to be a stunner.
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