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Friday, April 04, 2014

Hi everybody,

I have been living in Rio since October 2012, and teaching English.  I have enjoyed riding around Rio, mostly in "Zona Sul", which has the most extensive bicycle infrastructure--a bicycle pathway along the principal beaches--Ipananema, Copacabana, Botafogo, Flamengo--and along the lake, Lagoa Ricardo Freitas.  Every Saturday and Sunday, the road along Copacabana and Ipanema are closed to automobiles, and are then populated by all kinds of non-motorized locomotors: walkers, cyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, etc.  This is a great time to get out and ride, but really anytime is a great time for a ride along the coast from Aterro de Flamengo/Praia de Flamengo (or really all the way up to the Santos Dumont Airport) all the way along the coast, past Pão de Açucar and Botafogo, through the tunnel to Copabana, and around past Arpoador, Ipanema, all the way to Leblon.  If you want to keep going west, you can continue up and over Avenida Niemeyer, and you will end up along the São Conrado beach, where the bike pathway continues.  Keep going, and you will end up at a tunnel, which you can go through, carefully, and keep going, ending up in Barra.  There, you can make your way to the beach, where the bike path picks up again.  From here, you can ride on an uninterrupted bikepath all the way to Recreio, which is maybe 20 kilometers away.

One of my dreams is to build a tall bike here in Rio, and ride it all over Centro and Zona Sul.  I have not seen one yet here.  It will surely be a miraculous sight to the average carioca, or Rio de Janeiro local.  I will surely post pictures and videos if I succeed in making that dream a reality!