Sao Conrado

Overnight the weather became windy, rainy, and quite cool. Racing was cancelled for the day, causing a lot of confusion for later days of racing. When racing was rescheduled, the tickets did not just slide one day, so there was a scramble for people to buy new tickets or trade tickets with others. A mess for some.

By now, David had come down with a terrible head cold, so he stayed home while Andrew, Emily, and I walked a few miles along a walkway – heading west from Leblon Beach to Sao Conrado to the Royal Tulip Hotel where Proctor and Gamble had set up a “house” for Olympians and their families to relax. Lots of TVs for event watching, unlimited food and drink, comfortable chairs, freebies, and Emily and Andrew “won” free tickets to a beach volley ball session for the next day. Andrew also had a beard trim and Emily had her nails done.

Our walk to Sao Conrado was a bit confusing. Along the shore is a gorgeous, newly constructed walkway along the road and cliffs. On one side is a sharp drop to the rocks and waves, on the other side is a road which was for the exclusive use of traffic to the hotels in the area and the Olympic Village. At one point, the hillside to the north is covered with small shanty homes. Long stairways lead up to the porches of these homes – many not accessible by any means other than foot. The confusing part of this walk was that every so often we would encounter a large cement barrier across the walkway. At one point there was even a sign saying no pedestrians. However, there were others jogging and walking on the pathway and a policeman parked on the other side of the road merely waved to us. This path had obviously been built as part of the infrastructure for the Olympics – why it was being blocked we did not know. However, after our visit to the P and G house, we chose to get an Uber ride back to our apartment.

That evening we went out for one more delicious meal. Emily is a vegetarian and to this point we had indulged in restaurants that offered plenty of meat – as most do in Brazil. This night we chose the Vegetariani Social Club, a vegan restaurant in easy walking distance. The food was outstanding – flavorful and inventive. My favorite was a Bobo de Shiitake – Manioc cream with coconut milk and shiitake with shredded vegetables. I could have eaten that all night.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)