Emporio

The last 2 nights I had in Rio, I followed the crew from the hostel to a bar in Ipanema called Emporio. Ipanema is a more populr beach than Copacabana, and so there are higher class hotels there and therefore more foreigners on vacation. When we got to this bar, I could tell it was going to be fun.

It was a nice looking place combined with a low key atmosphere. The drinks were medium priced. There were a lot of feoreigners there. I would dare say that most people spoke some english. There was a live DJ both nights, playing American rock music with a beat. I found out later on a day trip I took that Rio people like international music more than Brazilian music, so this is a common thing.

I danced most of the night on the small dance floor with 2 canadian girls that were from our hostel, since they enjoyed dancing as much as I do.

We liked this place so much we went back the next night.

At the end of the first night though, we walked out to the beach when the bar started dying down and I watched a couple people take off everything but their underwear and jump into the ocean. I wanted to but I didn't feel like getting salt water on my skin in case it might dry up and get itchy.

Ipanema beach is lit up so well you can see everything on the sand. It would be tough to witness any crime I think. I felt pretty safe there even in the middle of the night.

We took a cab home when the sun started coming up. I wanted to stay to see the sunrise but the rest didn't, not sure why.