Day 35: Summer in Rio and Shirts are Optional
It’s hot in Rio — and the temperature is high too. Mom jokes!
Remember when we were so excited to be out of hotels and back in an Airbnb when we went from Peru to Chile? Apparently this will be a back-and-forth sentiment, because we’re thrilled to be back in a hotel here in Brazil. Air conditioning! Gym! Breakfast buffet! Clean towels!
We’ve both been to Brazil before — Teddy to Florianopolis in the south and I to Rio for TEDGlobal 2014 — but neither of us had the chance to just come to Rio and relax.
What an awesome place. Four nights here will definitely leave us wanting more.
We’re staying in Copacabana, where the people watching is heaven.
Today we Uber’d to Surgarloaf Mountain to check a major tourist box – it was worth it! We took a gondola to the top of the giant cartoon-looking mountain iconic to Rio’s “skyline.”
Pro tip: Print your tickets before you go and skip the line.
Went up and came right back down on our own timing. Glad we didn’t have a guide in such a hot place. In and out.
We Uber’d back to Copacabana with an Uber driver who I swear was 14. Even Willa goes, “Our drive is a teenager!” when we got in.
We ate lunch on the beach at a Quisque Chopp Brahma, and it was really good.
James got scolded today for biting Willa while we waiting for lunch to arrive. He was hot, tired and hungry, and the rebuke from daddy didn’t help. He played with his Plus Plus blocks for five minutes in silence afterward before bursting into delayed-reaction tears, saying he’d built an airplane because he wanted to go back to NYC. It was honestly so sad. But then he ate and forgot all about that.
Copacabana Beach is a shitshow, and there are obviously 45 billion beaches nicer than this in Brazil, but for some reason it works. If a US beach had plastic in the waves, shoulder to shoulder crowds, unrelenting 95-degree heat and hawkers selling you something every minute and half, you’d never, ever go back. But we stayed, rented some chairs and umbrellas and loved it. The kids went bonkers playing in the surf, returning a stray futeball whenever it rolled their way.
Look out, Copa 
#bumgoals 
We swam some more on our roof, then had dinner in Ipanema at Zaza’s which was delicious. Still ravenous after Chile.
Otrio 
Random thoughts:
We’ve heard so much 90s American music in South America. I joked today that I’ve heard “What’s Going On?” by Four Non-Blondes more times in the last month and a half than I did in the entirety of summer 1993, when I played it on repeat.
Out of nowhere today Willa goes, “Lobsy looks good when she wears a fanny pack, but when you wear a fanny pack, you don’t look good, mama.” Ha! “Good” wasn’t what I was going for anyway with this thing, so I’m ok.
James is a hit in Rio so far. We read that Brazilians love kids, but interestingly it’s been men who’ve consistently fawned over James. Uber drivers, hotel staff, waiters — all rustling his hair, giving him high fives, gifting him soccer balls.
