rachel was up at aboutt 9am. i woke up at 11. felicio and ana were still sleeping. i showered quick and rachel and i were going to set out to the lagoon, botanical gardens, fort of copacabana and maybe sugar loaf. we headed towards the nearby subway station centro only to find it was closed. well. two options. lay around the house or try the bus. we attempted the bus. unsure of what number to take—andrea had the idea that if it says copacabana on it –it must head there. to double check we crossed to the other direction of traffic to see if any of them said copa—and to make sure the subway was really closed. yup—that side of the bus stop definitely smelled of foul urine and unbathed people. without being pickpocketed we crossed back to the original side and after waiting about 5 minutes hopped on a bus that said copacabana. trying to remember what the area looks like—we passed botafugo, and flamengo beach and then waited until the second stop of copacabana before getting off the bus. safe. in copacabana.
next we headed towards the beach. everything makes so much sense direcionally when there is a giant ocean on one side of the town.
we then decided to walk copacabana and stop at the fort. it is still raining –the annoying drizzle. yup. amazingly all the beer cans from the night before had been picked up from the beach by the less fortunate population trying to earn money from the aluminum. there were still flowers along the shoreline and some of the offerings within the sand were still there. the broken glass was mostly picked up and there were not as many people there.
made it to the fort. closed. took a picture of the locked gate. onto the blue lagoon. i remember the map (didn't want to pull it out and look like total tourist)--mind you everytime we walk pass brazilian men they hoot and hollar “ i love you! hello!” or some other broken english. regardless—i remember from the map there is a river that splits piers 10 and 11 from ipanema beach which leads straight to the lagoon. continued walking—found the river... followed it and found the lagoon. very pretty. good view of the christ statue too. saw the giant christmas tree too. then, headed towards the botanical gardens. we had to get on the other side of the horse racing track. we continued walking—in the rain. then it started raining a little harder than previous and we ducked underneath a tree for some protection. out popped a local younger gentleman that asked if we wanted to share a taxi. no. we are going to the botanical garden. then he continued talking. he knew english fairly well. then came a hobo—with a giant garbage bag on his head. only spoke in porteguese. the young guy just told us to ignore the dude. which we did well. eventually the hobo left. the young dude kept walking with us for a litlle bit. he will be studying at stanford in july. then he invited us to his house for some beers with his friends, we greatfully declined and continued towards the botanical gardens.
we got to the busysteet lined with the botanical gardens and it was quite... ghetto. all of the 12 foot high wall had grafitti all over it. and there werent many pedestrians either. oh well. got to the enterance gate--- closed. hoping there was another way in. nope. nothing. closed shut. took some pictures of the pretty palm trees through the gate and decided to head back to the lagoon and the beaches before heading home for the day. we had been walking for 3 hours. found the lagoon and took a different way back to the beach. passed by a shopping mall. duh—when its raining go shopping! went up the two escalators, and found a bathroom for free. we both had to go quite bad. then started wallking around the floor—only to find everything closed. did some window shopping.
finished the small area of unblocked stores at the mall before heading back outside to the beach. decided with the continued rain—it would just be best to try and find ou way home. so we wwent t he fis busystees with traffic going in th correct direcion and look for bus station 2. we found it and then knew we wanted bus 333, 334, 464. waved down a 334 paid our R2.50 and got off after the lapa arches. walked the five blocks to felicio and started our relaxing evening.
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