Day 16, Jan 19, 2006: Rio, Day 2
On three of the four days I was in Rio I had breakfast - cafe da manha - (remembered dialogue from Portuguese 1: "Eu tomo sempre o mesmo café com leite.") at the Mercearia Barão do Flamengo, a little hole in the wall grocery store/breakfast counter not far from Fernanda's apartment. The owner, Senhora Bertão, from Cape Verde, her assistant and her daughter, Andreia, who ran the cash register, kept me well supplied with café com leite, suco de abacaxi (pineapple juice), pão francês (French bread) and queijo (cheese) and generally made me feel at home in the big city.
Senhora Bertão (right) and assistant


Andreia Bertão


Having spent most of my first day in a fruitless pursuit of a rental bicycle, I decided to make up for lost time my second day by entering hyper-tourist mode. After another round of Senhora Bertão's rib-sticking, brain-waking goodness, I hopped into a cab for the ride to the Pão de Acucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain), the distinctive, giant madeleine-shaped mound of rock that guards the entrance to Rio de Janeiro harbor. Buying my $R35 ($15+) ticket, I boarded the bondinho (cable car) made famous by Brigitte Bardot, James Bond and so many others. Although the air seemed clearer this day than the day before, a thin, sickly haze hung over much of the city. Still, the view was spectacular.
View west to Corco- vado and Botafogo neighbor- hood from the lower Morro da Urca (Urca Hill)


View from Morro da Urca to the north: Flamengo neighbor- hood and beach


From whence we came: Morro da Urca and a bit of Ipanema neighborhood and the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas


Copacabana Beach (large white crescent in the back- ground) and the Atlantic Ocean


Flamengo


Flamengo Beach, downtown Rio and the Santos Dumont airport


Yes, I really was there.


Rio street scene near Fernanda's apartment in Flamengo