Episode LXXXVIII: Brazil! Part I: Things That Were Beaches

I went to Brazil at the beginning of this month, where I stayed with Rafael’s family and he toured me all around the city of Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere in Brazil.

I figure I have enough to talk about that I will divide this into two posts. Part I (this part) will be called “Things That Were Beaches.” Perhaps you might like to guess what Part II will be called? It will be called “Things That Weren’t Beaches.”

So: Things That Were Beaches.

One of the nicest things about Rio de Janeiro, and about all of Brazil (that I saw) was its fantastic beaches. In my opinion, the two main fascinations with Brazil’s beaches are (1) their great variety, and (2) the natural beauty in which they are set.

In terms of variety, I experienced beaches that were chokingly populated with umbrellas and towels, and beaches in which I saw not a single human being. Beaches serviced by congested four-lane streets plus a two-lane pedestrian and cycling street, and beaches you have to off-road to get to. Beaches with art, sculpture, beautiful stone walkways, exercise machinery, drink kiosks, street vendors, traveling blanket salesmen, and more.

Natural beauty is the most distinctive thing to me, however. The beaches of Rio are interspersed between hills of densely green forest that naturally wall off one beach from the next. It is hard for me to express, or to put into pictures, just how pretty of a natural setting this all is. I will attempt a couple of pictures though.

One kinda neat thing found on the famous beaches of Rio is a game called Footvolley, which you can see in the video I took below. It is basically sand volleyball without hands, and a lot of Brazil’s former soccer stars like to play the game when they get old and out-of-shape. This game is being played at Copacabana beach, the birthplace of Footvolley.

While I unfortunately did not get to play a game of Footvolley, I did get to play a game of sand volleyball, at the very same beach.

Finally, let me tell you a story about my first day of staying in Rio. Rafael and his family were not arriving at their house until 32 hours after I arrived in Rio. Hotel prices being exorbitantly high for the famous New Year’s celebration, I decided to have an adventure and sleep on the beach my first night. I chose Ipanema beach (perhaps you have heard a song about said beach.) It was convenient that they lit the beach at night with floodlights, and there were handfuls of people enjoying the sand, or playing pickup games of soccer through the night; it made me feel a little more normal.

It was inconvenient that at around 3 am, shortly after I had finally fallen asleep, it started raining. I scurried off for shelter underneath a little tiny awning provided by the lifeguard tower. It turns out, however, that this was also the domicile of a homeless man. The man was kind enough to let me share the place with him for the night, and I helped him break apart a large cardboard box for him to construct a little lean-to. He didn’t speak any English, so I got some intensive practice on my Portuguese. Anyhow, there I spent the night with my new homeless friend. (It smelled like urine.)

The next morning I woke up in time for what was overall the most wonderful sunrise I have ever experienced. Again, words/pictures don’t do justice, but here is a photo anyway.

Coming up next time: Brazil! Part II: Things That Were Not Beaches.