Vacation Ends with a Long Walk Along the Beaches

From the far southern end of Copacabana Beach, looking north to Sugarloaf

If I were sufficiently flexible -- and thankfully I am not -- I would be kicking myself in the hindquarters. I first visited Rio de Janeiro in 1997. And it took 25 years to get back here. What took me so long?

On my second time in Rio de Janeiro on this trip, I am staying on Copacabana Beach. 

I'm now at the end of a two-week vacation and I really lost the interest in planning anything in particular to do today. Besides, there is a Brazil game in the World Cup coming up mid-day, so anything that would be open will not be open. Except the beach.

So I'm on the beach,

This is a game of futvolei, which is volleyball played like soccer-football. In other words, it is volleyball where you don't use you hands. You use your feet, your head, your legs, your chest, your shoulders. Anything but your hands and arms. There is no regular volleyball happening here. There aren't even any soccer-football games. It's all futvolei.

And paddleboarding. There will be surfing when I stop at Arporador. But I haven't worked my there yet on this walk.

I was thinking of visiting Forte de Copacabana, the old military fort that was built to protect this area from French privateers. But there was a line.

So I continued on to Ipanema.

See. I'm at Ipanema Beach. Tall and tan and young and lovely. Well, one out of four ain't bad.

The beach was crowded when I walked past, but it thinned out as game time got closer. And there was plenty of futvolei here too.

These people were particularly good. It's strange seeing people playing volleyball with their heads and feet much better than I could even imagine playing in the ordinary style.

Ipanema is not as deep (meaning it's not as far from the sidewalk to the water) as is Copacabana. It's also quieter. And, based on nothing, I have the impression that the ratio of locals to tourists is not as heavily skewed towards us turistas as it is on Copacabana.

There's some locals in that picture, no? Well, the lifeguard sitting up in his lifeguard tower most definitely would be a local.

I then wind my way back to Arporador, with its giant rock and surfers.

Surfers going to surf.

Or just walking around with surfboards to look cool. Either is cool.

People hanging out in the water and people hanging out on the rock.

There were a couple of professional photo shoots happening on the rock. Here's one.

But some people climb up on the rock to get away from the beach crowd, I guess.

The Brazil-Croatia game has started, so it was time to walk back up along Copacabana Beach to my hotel.

It's not the Jobim statue on Ipanema. This is the Copacabana's statue of Dorival Caymmi.

He was an important figure in the development of samba and bossa nova, although he does not have the international legacy of Jobim.

The last day of the vacation is coming to an end.

My mood is blue. Blue water. Blue skies. That kind of blue.

It's been a great vacation, but it's time to go back home, which is how you should feel at the end of a great vacation. If you're not ready to go home, the vacation was not a long enough. And if the vacation was too short, how can it have been "great."