Aproador

Arpoador

From the lagoon an Uber or a short walk through Ipanema brings you to Arpoador, the rocky promontory that separates Ipanema from Copacabana. The name means "harpoon thrower" in Portuguese — the rock was, before the 20th century, a place from which indigenous peoples and later Portuguese fishermen harpooned whales that came to breed in the warm coastal waters. The rock itself is said to be shaped like a whale; listed as a protected heritage area in 1989 for its scenic, environmental, and ecological significance, it sits at the intersection of two of the most significant stretches of carioca beach culture.

It was on this small promontory and its adjacent beach that surfing arrived in Brazil — in the 1940s and 1950s, cariocas were riding homemade wooden boards in the waves produced by the rock's left-hand break — and that the bikini made its Brazilian debut, worn in 1948 by a German woman named Miriam Etz who had sewn her own. From the 1960s onward the rock became a gathering point for artists and composers; Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, and João Gilberto were regulars in the neighbourhood. The tradition of applauding the sunset from the top of the rock — said to have been started by journalist Carlos Leonam as a gesture of thanks for the daily spectacle — continues every evening that the weather allows. Standing at the tip of the rock, the view west takes in the full length of Ipanema and Leblon, with Morro Dois Irmãos and Pedra da Gávea as the backdrop, and the sun setting directly over the sea in the summer months.