New Year's Eve on Copacabana was beyond my expectations!! It was everything I had imagined and then some!!! Pictures and short TV news briefs do not do justice to a New Year's Eve celebration on Copa as it is known!!! My friend and I ignored all the advice and suggestions by our hotel tourist office and decided to do everything our way; i.e. play it by ear!! After a long day of rest and hanging out at the hotel, we decided to eat a late lunch at around 5 pm, early dinner really, and then head to Copa around 6 pm and so we did... However, finding a yellow taxi to take us to Copa was not trivial as the drivers were avoiding that whole area.. eventually we did ... The driver dropped us at Ipanema which is close enough to Copa... It was 6:30 pm when we started our long walk from Ipanema to the north end of Copa, the Lemme section of Copa.. Along the way, we ran into crowds of different sizes having mini parties all over... We noticed immediately how relaxed Brazilian laws are regarding alcohol consumption... There was alcohol everywhere and people were allowed to bring their own. You see coolers full of stuff and some people were selling alcohol as well so all in all a very different scene than what we are used to in the States. A huge stage was erected at the beginning of Copa in front of a luxury hotel called Copacabana Palace... Bands were playing and people dancing everywhere around us. We had to weave our way through the crowd in a scene of organized Chaos!! Military and municipal police were everywhere so we felt pretty safe but we needed to watch our pockets just in case... Once out of that mayhem we headed to a less populated area on the north end of the beach, Lemme section. An interesting scene at that end was the presence of a large number of big motorcycles and a campground full of tents... Ah I thought, I could have camped if I knew that but oh well next time I thought. There was also a ceremony of some local people, may be Indians, that were dressed up in white and dancing around a small teepee surrounded with lights. The women were wearing elaborate dresses with crowns on their heads .... Very interesting I thought but no clue what it was all about...
The crowds were getting bigger and bigger with time and when the countdown started you could hear a roar all along the beach from people screaming and counting down and then 2016 was illuminated and the fireworks lit the skies over the beach and water... What an awesome display, I thought, the grand finally was just "grand" and the cheering hugging went on for a while...
We started making our way through the crowds towards the Ipanema side so we can find a taxi back to our hotel... Easier said then done, there were no taxis anywhere in sight... Asking the police did not help as they told us to follow the crowd which was heading west of the beach and so we did... We crossed two tunnels on our way to what turned out to be Botafogo, another suburb of Rio!! We found a taxi to our hotel at 4:15 am!! We walked for nearly 4 hours!!! By the time we reached our hotel it was over 5 am and we were just exhausted so we crashed and slept...
That was a New Year's Eve for the ages and one I will never forget .... On Copacabana beach in Rio!!!
A big stand for music bands on Copa beach
Locals dancing around a teepee surrounded with lights
A New Year's Eve sign on Copa
A bar restaurant on the beach in Copa
Party-party everywhere all along Copa
Some decorations along the beach
The strip along Copa beach
First aid tents along Copa
View from the north end of Copa of the bay and beach
Local people dressed in white and dancing along to some music
Tent city at the north end of Copa
Motorcycles at the north end of Copa
Another bar restaurant along Copa
The fireworks over the bay and beach! Wow
Fireworks, hugs and all out celebration the Brazilian way!!!
The grand finally
People heading home after the party
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