Nightlife in Rio

By now, you all know that we live part-time in Nova Friburgo and the other part in Rio de Janeiro.  When in Friburgo, we don’t really go out at night.  In the 8 years living here in Brasil, I’ve been out maybe 10 times at night in Friburgo and two of those was to go downtown for carnival.  The road from our house is a narrow two lane road, with many sharp hairpin turns – neither of us really likes driving it at night – so we don’t.  I am sad to say we watch TV.   We go to Rio if we start wanting to be out after dark.  We either walk around Ipanema to go to the movies, or to dinner, or to just go for a beer and ‘Lula & French fries’ or we take a taxi to meet friends for an occasional change of pace in their neighborhood – for dinner or drinks... Yep not a very exciting night life for us.   

In Ipanema, by around 7 all the stores (lojas) are closed up for the night.  The people that are on the street are local residents and tourist that are staying at the hotels.  Like us they are looking for food or a movie.  I think that there are clubs on either end of this barrio that keep the young people entertained, but we aren’t really aware of them and most definitely don’t go anywhere near them. 

During the day the streets are so crowded that you can’t loose focus long enough to look in the shop windows but at night our 6 block area of Ipanema is quiet and it is nice to window shop or to walk along the beach. ..... (for us that is between 8 and 10, then to home!)

   

Down by the beach there is still a little traffic and some action.  Most of the action is soccer or volley ball games on the beach and people enjoying a beer and conversation at one of the kiosks along the way.  The day is winding down.