Back in the Saddle

Up at 6:30 today as the sun dictated and after umming and ahhing for some time we decided on a walk to Lagoa Rodrigo de Freita (that's the lake to you and me) with the intention of hiring a four seater bike to circumnavigate said lake. However, on viewing the foursome bike and after a short discussion on how we had not seen a single one in operation in two days and how foolish we would probably appear, we plumped for three ordinary bikes (one with a child seat on back) and set off around the lake. In spite of initial misgivings from Erin and I who are not natural cyclists, this proved much easier than walking and with the wind at our backs we were cool on so many levels!
A short and rather hairy cut off brought us back to Ipenema beach where we took a pit stop to strip down to our bikini's (and Gareth's offensively tight trunks), then back on the bikes again.
Soon we reached our destination of Copacabana which though lined with better cafe's than Ipanema, felt rather more hectic and the beach-vendors selling sarongs and other trinkets were far more pushy. Lunch and more agua de coca consumed, it was back on the bikes, back around the Ipenema coastline, up the hairy intersection to the lake and bikes dropped off just after four. Phew!
Showered and sun kissed, it was time to head out after dark for food. We hit upon 'Koni' which was mainly a sushi bar (which I love), but unfortunately I also ordered a 'tuna koni' which was pretty much a seaweed cone filled with a huge mound of raw tuna which I could barely bring myself to look at, let alone eat. Still, ice cream a few stores along helped to put the nauseating tuna from my mind.
Kids now in bed, blog duly posted, it's off to my ice-cold air conditioned bedroom to dream of more site seeing tomorrow, hopefully not brown fish flesh and saddle soreness.