Wednesday, June 16, 2010

We got up and had breakfast. It looked to be a nice day outside. We decided to walk over to Ipanema again. Along the way, we stopped at numerous places so Crystal could look for sandals and jerseys. She didn't find the sandals she wanted, but did get a Robinho jersey. Every store we walked past had the Chile-Honduras match on, and when it was nearing the end we stopped at a streetside cafe to watch the end - Chile eked out the win. Justin wanted to watch Spain v Switzerland, so we stopped at a juice bar to watch the first half. We watched the second half at Casa de Feijoada. It was a great game, with a big upset - Switzerland beat Spain, who was the pre-tournament favorite [and ended up winning the title]. After two years of waiting, Crystal got her coffee. It's made in an interesting way - the water boils up through the grounds, then condenses and falls back through them.

After lunch, we walked over to the Botanic garden, north of Ipanema. We walked past the lagoon, which was much larger than we thought. By the time we got there, our feet were hurting pretty good. We were not used to walking so much in our sandals, especially after the days we spent in Bolivia in shoes and multiple layers of socks. The botanic garden was nice, but was full of loud school kids. There were tons of palm trees, and also some nice bamboo. We saw a toucan, but it was right above us, and we couldn't snap a photo in time.

We walked back to Ipanema (taking a different route this time), and hit up a couple of bars on Amaedo Street. We watched the end of the Uruguay-South Africa match, then hung out for awhile waiting for room to open up in our stomach. Once we were sufficiently hungry, we went to dinner at Porcao. The food was good, and there was lots of food, but not that much variety - less than other churrascarias we've been.

We couldn't bear to walk back to our hotel, so we caught a cab. We were stuffed and tired, and fell right asleep. All told, we walked about 12 miles, saw a lot of Rio, and ate a ton of food - that's what being on holiday is all about.