Saluting the setting sun

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The Arpoador rock, jutting up at the border between the Copacabana and the Ipanema beaches, is a favorite place to be in Rio, when the sun sets.

We sat there tonight, together with hundreds of cariocans, watching the sun setting down in all its splendor behind the mountain ridges west of Rio.



Guys climbed around the rock, selling long drinks to the spectators, and when the sun finally vanished in blushing red and orange, like everybody around us, we applauded the fantastic spectacle.


  • A few times during the summer you can actually from Pedra do Arpoador see the sun set directly into the sea - a rare sight in  the Rio area. 
  • Normally you see the sun setting behind the mountains and you have to arrive in good time, as nighfall is a least half an hour before the official sunset time of Rio.

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