Friday, December 23, 2022

Initially, we were going to go to the Botanical Garden and Parque Lage on Friday, but I woke up not feeling well. We decided to stay in bed and rest for a bit. Once we finally got up – we walked along Copacabana Beach and found a place that had the most amazing empanadas.

Before we had left for Rio, we had booked a sunset sailing tour for Friday afternoon. We were looking forward to being out on the water looking back at the city. After our leisure morning, we made our way to the marina. I think it’s important to know that both taxis and Ubers are reputable in Rio de Janeiro. We alternated back and forth between using them depending on the cost. I wouldn’t say we had one preference over the other, but it was convenient to not have to tell a driver where we were going and just direct them through the app. (Food for thought!)

While we were waiting to get on our sail boat, we met a lovely couple from Delaware. They had their Peru trip get disrupted – and they had to wing their South America trip last minute too. Misery does love company!

The sailing tour didn’t actually make it until sunset, but we were fine with that. It was cool to get to see different forts that had been created to protect the city and other beaches. We even got to see a man barbecuing off the back of his boat – I can’t say I’ve seen that before!

After swinging past the military beach area, we ventured over towards another city called Icaraí. This was home to the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum. To me, it looks like a spaceship! We only saw it from the water though.

After our sailing tour had ended, we got a taxi back to our hotel. Our hotel really had a prime location, so it was never hard to find a restaurant for dinner. We went to a nearby restaurant, called Mab’s. There was a Samba band performing while we were there, which is always really fun to watch! I always really like it when other people passing by or eating at the restaurant stop to dance with the band.

Up Next:
-Parque Lage (former mansion at the base of Christ the Redeemer)
-Botanical Garden
-Christmas Eve dinner at the Hilton