Rio - Thongs and Brazilian ninjas

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Rio! Terrifying drive from the airport to the hostel. Driver was watching the F1 on a little TV and I think he was just a little bit caught up in it. We came inches from death on several occasions, but he was kind enough to slow down and point out Christ the redeemer. That was nice of him.

Staying at a place called Walk On The Beach Hostel. Pretty cool place, the set up feels like someones house. Got to the hostel around 7in the morning and couldn't check in till 1, so dumped my stuff off and went straight to the beach. Only a couple of streets away from the Copacabana beach. Got to be the biggest beach I've been to! Was there in my board shorts and I actually felt overdressed. Thongs everywhere. The only problem is that these people should NOT have been wearing thongs. At all. On several occasions the term beached whale crosses my mind. Even really wrinkly old grannies were wearing them. The winning moment today went to an old wrinkly couple, and obviously she was wearing a thong. The material was pretty much lost in the folds of wrinkled skin. The guy, obviously not satisfied with the amount of butt cheek showing tucked the fabric further into her butt crack. A truly shocking moment that needed sharing. The weather is unbelievable. The sun is pretty intense and its not humid. Walked from Copacabana beach round to Ipanema which is another long beach here. It was a Sunday and the beaches were packed, so much so that in places I couldn’t see sand. The hills and mountains in the background were incredible though. Oh and I saw some Brazilian ninjas (forgot what the martial art is called here) doing street performances.

First place ive stayed at that where you can use the kitchen to cook which is fun. There were 4 of us cooking at the same time last night and it was a really sociable experience actually. Plus itll make things a lot cheaper. Got a free welcome caipirinha (very Brazilian cocktail) which is really nice, bit sweet though. They have 2 types of restaurants here that sound really cool. No idea what the first one is called but it's a buffet and they come round with these huge metal sword/skewer things which has meat on it and they slice bits onto your plate. The other is called a kilo restaurant. It's basically a buffet set up and you fill your plate and are then charged based on the weight of the food. I can see myself piling waay too much food onto my plate for that one.

The one thing that I think most people dread when staying in a dorm room are snorers. I am that guy. I think I had it quite bad last night. Im very jet lagged and have not slept much in the last 48 hours so I think its understandable. I woke up this morning and saw the guy on the other side of the room had a tshirt stuck to one side of his head as if to block his ear. I think that was my bad. In a 6 room dorm, not as nice as the other places I've stayed. And they have triple bunk beds which is interesting. Luckily I was the first in so on the bottom. There's only 3 of us in here so that's good. Here for 3 nights then moving to another hostel in a different part of the city. Public holiday here on the 1st so prices are tripled so had to find somewhere that was cheaper.

Missed out on going to a favela rave last night as I couldnt keep my eyes open. Bit of a shame bit going on a boat party tonight so all is good.

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