Thursday 27 June 2002
It turned out that the flight to Lima was cancelled and the next wasn't leaving until today. Varig Airlines provided a stay at the Gloria Hotel in center Rio inclusive taxis and meals. This was absolutely tremendous. After 20 hours of travel without much sleep, the holiday couldn't start better than having a day off in Rio, paid by the airline.
About noon we made it to the Copacabana beach and it wasn't overestimated. What a wonderful beach. We walk at the waterfront; at this season the beach hasn't got that many tourists.
We drank fresh coconut and took a walk in the alleys behind the beach. That was another experience. No open caf's on the pedestrian street - no pedestrian street at all. Not by the beach anyway. Instead a noisy, dirty and quite poor mix of small shops all over. Later we learned that the more expensive places are located at Impanema and Leme beach.
Despite that the hotel advised us to use taxis only, we got on a city bus. What a rush. The driver was really a driver and we had the feeling being part of the movie "Speed" for a while. Surely we had to hold on to our seats. But it was a lot cheaper than the taxi.
Back on the hotel we went to the restaurant for our dinner. The restaurant was decorated with Brazilian banners and flags. Suddenly we remembered that Brazil was playing the World Cup soccer final against Germany in two days. Unfortunately we would be in Lima at that time. What a shame.
The waiter asked us where we were from and gave us an appreciative nod when we told we were from Denmark. He surely remembered that our team kicked out the former world masters only a week ago.