The English boys in the pousada give me a little heads up that Usain Bolt was running in the mano a mano on Copacabana on easter Sunday so it goes without saying that on easter Sunday I got up bright and early and headed, in one of the minivan buses that zoom past the end of the road every few minutes, to Copacabana. It was packed when we arrived, there was no official time for the races released so people got there super early. I stripped down, grabbed a coconut and tried to find a good spot for the race. I was really close to the front during the blade running but got too hot and post dip in the sea couldnt be bothered to find my spot again, it was baking hot. If you're interested ( which honestly, I'm not) Bolt missed his record by 0.07 seconds but still won with a time of 14.42 seconds, you can just about see him in green in one of the photos, my phone doesn't like bright sunshine so the exposure is terrible!
After the racing was finished we decided to head away from the crowds and headed to the world famous gay beach of Rio de Janeiro. We'd previously spent an afternoon on the beach at Leblon and it was empty, a long shot from what I expected of the beaches of Rio, this part of the beach however was filled with beautiful toned men in skin tight hipster swim shorts. More coconuts were consumed, bracelets, bikinis and sarongs were bought from the beach vendors and then we set up camp and stayed till sunset.
xo
