Cruzing Rio de Janeiro’s Beaches

Vargas

Well-Known Member
Last Saturday I went for a ride along Rios' beaches and took some pictures.

I ride quite early in the morning; I leave home at 06:00 am to be back around 09:00 am to have breakfast with my wife. This was the way I found for her not to be too jealousy of my Sofrider. She didn't look very happy when, at the few weekends I am home, I used to go pedaling after breakfast instead of going out or to the beach with her...

This is where I started pedaling. It was early in the morning and since we are in the middle of winter down here, and it was very cold this morning, some of the pictures show some fog.

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Zooming out, this is the inside of Guanabara Bay; Rio de Janeiro's bay and you can see where I started.

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This picture shows the entrance of Guanabara Bay, with the sun starting to rise.

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This is again the entrance of Guanabara Bay. The hill in the middle of the picture is the Sugar Loaf. The bay entrance is right to the left of Sugar Loaf. Look carefully and you can see a plane approaching the domestic airport which is close to where I was.
Access to the top of Sugar Loaf is via cable cars. The cables run to the right but are too far to show up in the picture.

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This Picture taken towards South from where I started shows the Sugar Loaf on the left, and if you look carefully on top of the hill on the right side of the picture you'll also see the Christ statue.

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A stop to take a picture of the Public Marina.

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Marina and again Sugar Loaf on the back.

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Just a stop to show how the bike path from downtown Rio to Flamengo beach looks like.

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Lots of trees and plants.

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This is the first beach, still inside the bay, Flamengo beach.

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Flamengo beach (have you noticed Sugar Loaf again?).

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Of course not many people at the beach at this time of the day.

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I just rode along Flamengo beach and stopped to take a Picture of Botafogo beach; also inside the bay.

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The Christ statue is on the top of the hill. It is called the Corcovado hill.

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Botafogo beach and Christ statue.

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From Botafogo beach I headed straight to Copacabana beach (btw where I live J).

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Copacabana beach. We are no longer inside the bay. This is an Atlantic Ocean beach.

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A little further on starts Ipanema beach, land of the famous "Girl from Ipanema". Or should I say the many girls from Ipanema!

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The first 2/3 of the beach are called Ipanema and the last 1/3 Leblon.
The sea was very calm this day. You can see some kids learning to surf - or trying to; no waves at all.

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Kept going and reached end of Leblon.

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Leblon and Ipanema, against the sun.

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This is the final ride. Short - 32 Km round trip - but quite nice!
Of course if you keep going there are many other beaches in a sequence and actually my favorites are the next ones. But breakfast was waiting for me...

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As I said we are in mid-winter and it was a very cold morning. Still quite cold when I returned home :)

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John Tolhurst

Zen MBB Master
Wow, thanks for being so kind

Wow, thanks for being so kind and uploading all those photos and maps to document your journeys. Now I understand why I need to go and live there. :)
 

Eric Winn

Zen MBB Master
Very nice! I really need to

Very nice! I really need to try and visit Rio as an adult. I lived there as a kid, age 5 through 7, with my parents when my Dad was stationed there with the USAF.

We lived in an apartment building somewhere at the base of Corcovado which is where I first learned to ride a two wheel bicycle. The bottom floor was raised with support pillars spaced regularly so I had to learn not to run into the concrete pillars.

Do they still have the long slides up on Sugar Loaf? The ones made with long wooden slats? You know, the ones where you could get splinters in your butt if they weren't maintained?

-Eric
 

Charles.Plager

Recumbent Quant
Very nicely done!
A Brazilian


Very nicely done!

A Brazilian friend of mine (I sent him the link - he loved the pictures!) pointed out how amusing it is to us that you think 21 degrees is cold. My ideal temperature is between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius. :D
 

Vargas

Well-Known Member
I was kidding on the very

I was kidding on the very cold day. 21 Celsius is perfect! And this is the usual temperature for winter; except when a strong cold front reaches us coming from Argentina. Then it can drop to 16 Celsius.

Women here don't have many chances to wear their winter woolies and nice coats. So when it gets down to 16 you see some women dressed as if they were in Moscow - very funny!

Access to the Christ statue changed a lot. Now there are modern elevators and escalators. Sorry, no more splinters :)
 

Ivan

Guru
I was in Rio last month for

I was in Rio last month for the first time and saw all those lovely bike paths around your bays. Amazing city and even more amazing people! I wish it was 21 deg C in Singapore!
 

Jim Gerwing

Well-Known Member
Thank you

Your photo/map essay is impressive. I was moved.
I am kicking myself; last week I was in Banff, Alberta and never got on a bike or took a decent photo.
 
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