Girl From Ipanema | Brazilian Beach Packing Tips

I always love that adventurous feeling you get just after leaving the generic atmosphere of the airport and hopping into a cab.

You’re jet lagged and hungry but staring at everything out the window in an attempt to understand your new environment. The strangeness heightens your senses as you smell the air and feel new temperatures on your skin. Rio de Janeiro has its own unique heartbeat and we were ready to sway to the beat.

aracaje, a bean fritter stuffed with spicy shrimp and onions from the Bahia region of Brazil

We stayed in the neighborhood of Ipanema, a couple blocks from the beach.

Rio beaches are punctuated by “postos”, huge lifeguard towers that also house changing rooms and bathrooms for a small fee. Different crowds gather at each posto, with the posh end of the beach being Posto 11.

We headed to Posto 9, best known for rainbow flags and day drinking.  As you walk along the distinctive sidewalks (each beach has its own pattern), vendors will wheedle and hustle you to their stand. The beach stand or barraca will rent you chairs and umbrellas, setting up in your preferred spot in the sand. Our vendor, Edge, found us on our first foray to Ipanema. We kept returning to his colorful stand for the best caipirinha’s and coldest beer on the beach.

Edge!

Vendors will stroll by during the day, singing their wares as they go. Definitely don’t be shy, try anything that appeals to you: queijo coalho, a dense, fresh cheese grilled and served with or without oregano, sandwiches, matte, a combination of iced tea and lemonade. Wash everything down with a local beer, Skol.

Rio Beach Packing List (to not look like a tourist)

• your tiniest bathing suit

• canga - lightweight, cotton cover up instead of a thick towel otherwise know as a pareo or Turkish towel

• sunblock

• sunglasses

• a little cash

• hat

• havaianas - flip flops