Bary Manilow´s song about falling in love at the Copacabana is a sad song, about a young beautiful dancer who has lost her lover, her youth and her beauty. It seems that the beach itself has lost some of its spark.
We stayed at a hostel close to the Ipanema beach. I really prefer "Girl from Ipanema" by Stan Getz. It´s more fun and a happier story.
Both beaches are ´ok´.
The interesting event while we were in Rio was not the beaches (too cold), not the visit to the huge Maracana stadium (didn´t happen) or the climb to see the big Christ statue (neither), but rather the rains. And floods. LOTS of them.
Rio de Janeiro had not known such rains in the past 30 years.
It was raining endlessly almost since the moment we got there and for a couple of days. Close to 300 dead of mudslides (why?). As Bary says: "don´t fall in love"..
We were waiting for an urgent package to arrive from Israel, with anti-Malaria pills in it, which we had to take if we wanted to go to the jungles later. While waiting, we moved to a nearby island called Ilha Grande, with beautiful beaches.
When we got there, we discovered the package was going to be left at the Brazilian customs (how surprising), and so we spent most of the time desperately looking for other travellers with extra pills.
Yes. We got them.
Goodbye beaches and floods, and welcome to the Jungle!!

Photos:
Above: Ilha Grande and wildlife, me aside the Ipanema beach.
Below: surfers at the Copacabana beach.
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