North of Havana

At the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana

At the Copa, Copacabana
I woke the next morning, still thinking about the previous night’s failure. The weather looked like it would be quite nice for the day so after breakfast I walked along Copacabana beach and down to Ipanema, heading for the gay bit of the beach (around Posto 9 in case you are wondering). I figured it might be a slightly less scary way of experiencing gay Rio than going to a bar alone. By the time I arrived at the beach it was starting to get busy. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like at the height of the season with people so crowded together that no sand would be visible. I had a bit of a wander looking for a spot to settle myself down in. There were a couple of groups of Brazilian guys all with very fit bodies and small swimwear so I stayed a respectable distance from them, knowing I would look unfit, pale and hairy in comparison.

I found a quieter spot, unfurled my towel, removed my t-shirt and trainers and gave myself a good squirt with the suntan cream. I had mastered the art of being able to do my own back without missing any spots, a handy skill when travelling alone. I think that a single person must have invented spray-on suntan cream. I decided the best course of action would be lying on my stomach, thereby hiding most of it, while giving me a good chance to look at my fellow sunbathers. I put my earphones in and selected shuffle on my show tunes playlist. Liza was first up on the shuffle. I’m not sure the moment could have been any gayer.

After a while some clouds started to roll in. As the sun went behind one of them I took off my sunglasses for a while. There were a couple of guys sitting a few feet away to my left. During my look around I made eye contact with one of the guys. He smiled a hello, I nodded back to him. The guy he was with looked over and waved. They seemed friendly so I thought this could be the chance to redeem myself from the previous night. I was a little bit wary of going over, thinking that if they were Brazilian then any communication could be very short given my limited vocabulary. I figured if there was a language barrier I could always use the entirety of my Portuguese to say “I would like to go, thank you” and go back to my sunbathing.

I got up & took a few steps to where they were sitting. I said “Olá”. I got a hello back. It turned out that they spoke English. One of the guys said to me “Are you European?”. I asked if it was that obvious. Apparently it was. I picked up my towel and belongings and moved over to join them. They were Lau and Marcelo, a couple who lived just outside Buenos Aires. Lau explained that they were in Rio for a ten-day break. His parents owned an apartment in Ipanema so they were fairly frequent visitors. They asked if I was just on holiday. I explained that I was doing a round the world trip, telling them that Buenos Aires was the next stop on my itinerary. They gave me some suggestions of things to see and do once I got to Buenos Aires.

As the clouds became more constant we decided to go get a drink so headed to one of the cafés nearby. Lau ordered the drinks for us in Portuguese. He asked if I spoke any languages. I told him that I knew one sentence of Portuguese, a few phrases in Dutch (mainly rude ones thanks to a Dutch ex-boyfriend of mine) and that I had studied Spanish at college but hadn’t really spoken it for over 12 years. He said that I would get to practice once I got to Buenos Aires. We spent the afternoon and early evening chatting and drinking. It was nice to finally have someone to talk to after a few days of relative silence.

Lau said that they might be going out for drinks that evening after they had had dinner with some friends of his parents so he said he would drop me a text later to let me know their plans. He also asked me if I had plans for the following day. I told him it was my last day in Rio so I would probably take it fairly easy. They said that they would be heading to the beach if the weather was nice otherwise they would head to Santa Teresa to take a ride on the tram which was very picturesque. They said I was welcome to join them. I had made some new friends. I headed back to the hotel and got myself some dinner. Lau & Marcelo didn’t end up going for drinks. They sent me a message saying that they were a bit tired following a large dinner. As it turned out it didn’t matter. I was fast asleep and only picked up the message in the morning.

The hottest spot north of Havana 

Over breakfast the next morning I caught up on some of the news on the BBC website. I saw that there had been a tram crash in Rio the previous day, the same tram that Lau had talked about. I sent a message to Lau telling him what had happened and saying that I would head to the beach. He replied saying they would meet me there. The weather was nicer than the day before, the beach even busier. By the time I arrived Lau & Marcelo were already there and I joined them. We spent the day on the beach, chatting in Spanglish, having the occasional drink and enjoying a dip in the water. There were not many people in the sea as the water was still quite chilly, at least for the locals (I didn’t have a problem with it having grown up with seaside holidays in the UK). I think at one point I even managed to snooze on the beach despite the crowds and the noise.

We arranged to meet for dinner later that evening. I headed back to shower and change and to pack my suitcase ready for leaving in the morning. Having been on the road for three months already I had forgotten the number of times that I had packed the case so far. Rio however was the first time in the trip that I packed the keys to the padlock inside the suitcase before locking it shut. I cursed. It was too late to do anything about it now as I needed to go meet Lau & Marcelo for dinner. We went out to a place called Carioca da Gema for dinner. As we left the subway station Lau checked with the guy on duty which was the best route to get to the restaurant and how safe it would be to walk there. The guy said it should be fine if we stuck to the main road.

We found the place and got ourselves a table. There was a band just warming up as we ordered some drinks. The food was great as were the caipirinhas. The singer with the band was good too, although I had no idea what he was singing about. Plenty of people were up dancing though. The Brazilians certainly know how to bust a few moves. The evening seemed to fly by and it was soon gone midnight. We called it a night and headed outside. There was a taxi outside waiting so we got into that. As we made our way back the driver went through a few red lights which apparently is quite normal in some parts of Rio where it is not so safe to stay. The taxi dropped me off at my hotel and I said adios to Lau & Marcelo and thanked them for a nice evening. They said that they would email me and that if I had time while I was in Buenos Aires I should go visit them.

Over dinner an idea had occurred to me as to how I could get into my case without breaking the case or the lock. It worked which meant I was able to get back in to my suitcase. I headed to bed for the final time in Rio. It had taken me a while to feel settled in to Rio but it would be somewhere that I would visit again in the future. Next time though I would visit with friends, preferably with at least one who spoke Portuguese.

“At the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana” 
Lyrics from Copacabana from the musical Copacabana the Musical