Day 37: We Are Sad to Only Have One More Full Day in Rio
Our last full day in Rio, and we ended up doing a day that looked more like real life than touring. Real life, that is, if you didn’t have jobs.
Teddy woke up early to exercise — ran to Ipanema and back and used the beach exercise equipment to work out. Very busy out there with exercisers, including a few games of Footvolley happening.
We spent the morning with the kids at the hotel doing school, then headed “uptown” midday to tonier Leblon, where I did a spin class at Velocity (pronounced Velo-sitch). My quest to try indoor cycling classes in as many cities as possible continues.
Velocity does not try to hide the fact that they are 100% a knockoff of SoulCycle. Yellow and gray branding, inspirational phrases (in English) painted on the walls, neon lights, even a wall of polaroids of riders and instructors.
In all three of my experiences so far (Colombia, Chile and Bazil), I’ve been a novelty for the staff and instructors. An American from New York — a regular SoulCycler! — in their class! Did I like it? Was it fun? Was it hard?
The instructor in Rio was Andre and he had high energy and white teeth. This class was the most fun so far — dancey and the riders knew how to do all the choreography/were intense about it, a la NYC — not surprising in this fitness-obsessed place.
The spin studio was actually on the 4th floor of a high-end shopping mall, Shopping Leblon, so we stayed for lunch and hit some stores. Teddy needed to replace some shirts already thanks to an overly excited dryer in Santiago, and Willa wanted a new bathing suit. Both kids got Havaiana flip flops (“Mama you NEVER let us get flip flops!!” – Willa). You could hear James clomping around a mile away.
We spent the rest of the day on the beach in Leblon. Where Copa beach was (delightfully) packed, noisy and trash-y, Leblon was (delightfully) empty, peaceful and perfect. We got some chairs and an umbrella, some popsicles and beers and relaxed as the sun set behind the mountains and a group of friendly guys kicked a soccer ball around. The kids played in the sand. We reluctantly packed up around 7.
The kids had one last swim in our hotel pool before dinner, which was down the street.
It was such a lovely day. We didn’t do anything particularly cultural, but we got to see another side of the city.
If we weren’t headed to the Amazon next (exciting!) we’d be crushed to depart. We can’t wait to come back to Rio.
