The cigar bar is a bit trashy (bright light, tile floor, the noise …) but is the best thing In Copacabana neighborhood, from the staff to the customers. We really enjoyed our last night in Rio, thank you.
Copacabana Palace supposedly their best hotel but the hotel itself seems could use some TLC – a lot of it, and the neighborhood feels New York 23rd Street. Buildings around the CP look shabby.
When we came to this cigar lounge, we were overjoyed. So we decided to spend last night here.
We were out the whole day and phone battery charger was long gone. They were kind enough to charge my phone – so we can Uber home.
The young guy who served the humidor is handsome and polite. The young lady at the bar makes the best Tanqueray and Tonic: she added peppercorns!
A regular, who said he’s of Lebanese descent was helping us with translation, and let me try his hoka, which is also becoming more popular in Rio. The lounge serves decent food – from the food he ordered.
The one last round of drink, to send us off. I couldn’t drink any more, only tried a little – it was yummy. No I don’t remember it’s name
As the night going deep, the noisy level increased. By then we were ready to leave. It was just a relaxed night and thank you all for your hospitality.
Chacrinha State Park is couple of blocks northwest of Copacabana Beach. The entrance is surrounded by residential buildings.
It has trails to the top of Morro de São João, with wildlife, and historical ruins. We didn’t get to the top because I was thinking how would I get down.
The colorful tiled steps is in the “Lapa” neighborhood, therefore, locals call it ‘Lapa Steps’ (Escadaria da Lapa).It’s the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón (1947-2013), his tribute to the Brazilian people. He moved to Rio in 1980 and lived in a house next to the stairs, that leads up to the Convent of Santa Teresa. It took him 20 years to decorate the 215 stairs.
There is a small blue wall before we reached the stairs … thought it was interesting….
A beautiful and well maintained pier in the Glória neighborhood.
It has three restaurants: Bota, Kitchen, a fusion and an Argentina Corrientes 348, but non of them are on the water. Maybe their sensibility is different from ours.
We’ve dinner at Bota at around 6pm: empty restaurant, large portion, good service. The couple of tables are all drinkers.
Three restaurants (Kitchen, a fusion and an Argentina Corrientes 348) on this marina – BR Marinas/Marina da Glória, and non of them are on the water. Maybe their sensibility is different from ours.
They’ve indoor and outdoor seatings.
We got there at 5:48 and no they don’t have tables on the water. So we chose to seat inside. It was quite hot out there. By 6:12, they offered us to sit on the upper deck which is looking over the water. By 6:21, the loud music begins to blast – good it was only testing; it didn’t come on again till 7pm when we were done with our dinner.
The floor of the upper deck isn’t the most stable. Most people there were drinking. Guess they eat late.
We’ve octopus and steak. Octopus is gigantic. They cared to know if my food was ok, I told them the truth – just tooooo big of a portion. The steak is more like breakfast steak.
Location: cross street from Copacabana Palace hotel, and half block from the famous prestige beach. However, the neighborhood feels crappy, like New York 23rd street.
Air conditioning: lacking
Decor: a little overdone but tolerable
Service: ok
Food: subpar
Tableware: plastic and some are chipped
Utensils: fast food or school cafeteria
They opened late on this Sunday. One waitress serving the small room, who looks shaky when serving the wine. They don’t have tea, the hot steaming yummy tea.
Food: we’ve wanton, mapo tofu and garlic charsui (pork).
Fried Wanton: so so. Only because I wanted dumplings during the Chinese lunar new year. The filling isn’t too bad
Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐: is 家常豆腐. No spicy at all. I asked for some spicy sauce, it came sweet.
Garlic charsiu: what’s the hell is this one? Where is my garlic?!? Both tofu and this one use the same dark sauce, which is, so $5.99 Flushing.
Paris Square is in the Glória neighborhood, south of Centro, and east of Santa Teresa. It modeled a typical Parisian garden, designed by French urban planner Alfred Agache (1875-1959) in 1926, under Mayor Antônio Prado Júnior. It has a few pieces of sculptures.
We passed by it a few times, the last time was Sunday, the near by market is huge, sells produces, foods, goods, art works, second hands stuff …
Deodoro da Fonseca (1827-92), a military officer turned the first president of Brazil in 1889. The equestrian statue of him was created in 1937, by the Brazilian sculptor Modestino Canto (1889 – 1967).
Near by is a Sunday market that sells produces, foods, second hand goods …
… A Chinese woman is picking … I consider this a selfish and terrible habit 缺德的陋习, and always wonder what do these pickers think:
that the rest of us should buy her leftover?
… if everyone is like her, she in fact, is buying the left over of other pickers like her
At the Market, did I realize Rio (or Brazil, in general?) is a cashless city/country, which fits me just fine. For the past few years, the US based credit cards don’t even ask us to register when traveling abroad: just go and we’ll handle the rest (might be the chip on the cards?) – which is all the more convenient. From restaurants to small vendors with a few water bottles to sell, they accept credit card, mostly Visa and or MasterCard. Every road and corner there are multiple street vendors, some with push cart some with a backpack, selling cold beverages – can cafés survive the competition, or some the street vendors are part of the physical establishment near by? From the second day on, we don’t even bother to bring our water bottle: fresh coconut and cold drinks are so readily available at your finger tip. 喜欢信用卡的通行度. 满大街卖冰/水的小贩们 人手一个收银机. 在这个背后 不知道信用卡公司的努力… 小咖啡店的挣扎. 相比之下 德国小商店/街市都还是现金… 对我这种从来不换当地货币的懒人来说 非常方便.
What’s the back story: how and what did credit card companies do to have such wide usage in a third world country (a/c is NOT guaranteed in shops …), and how and what do stores/cafés do to win the competition?
From our hotel in Centro, it’s a short and easy walk to PraçaParis, and a huge market is next to it, selling produces, foods, second hand goods … After the long walk, we turned away to Escadaria Selarón.
I’m impressed by how clean the beach is when we get there in the morning! … evening is another story.
Of course, there is this statue of their famed son Ayrton Senna (1960-94), who died on the race track …our first stop in Rio is to visit him.
Numerous vendors who sell beverage, bathing suits, hat, or rent chairs all take credit cards. Our last night there, nearly dark, as I was renting a paddle board, a woman pushed a chair at my husband who sat down, thinking they’re one groups. But nope, she then came to collect the rent, with her co-workers who don’t look nice and one of them has a credit card reader. lol… Language barrier is one thing, forced consumption is another. At that hour, the beach is empty and plenty places to sit …
We’re there the first thing in the morning is because we’ve to pick up the carnival ticket – you could purchase it online but they require you to pick it up in person, in a hotel in the Copacabana neighborhood. Can’t they issue you A barcode, instead? Some kind of thinking that hard to fathom, especially given the fact handheld credit card reader that every single vendor uses.
The ticket pickup place is a hotel very close to the Beach, so afterward, we go there and walk much of it (from R. Rodolfo Dantas, passing by Cantón) to the northern end, and have lunch at Colombo @ the Forte.
… the pristine beach in day time in the video … and night in the photo, which is pretty dirty.
小商店/街市都还是现金… 
对我这种从来不换当地货币的懒人来说 非常方便. 
