Made it and still in one piece

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Well we all made it safe and sound into Rio on Sunday morning, with no major problems. We were met at the airport by the cab driver sent by the hostel, very nice friendly Brazilian, no english. Before leaving the airport we tried changing our money, but the guy we asked simply pulled out a wad of bills and said, "How much you want change?". Needless to say we passed.

The drive from the airport was very enlightening. We passed tons of favellas (slums) along the way and some beuatiful scenery as well. If it wasn't for the poverty or crime, the city would be perfect.

The hostel is located on a nice quiet street a few minutes from Ipanema beach and there's lots of shops, restaurants and cafes close by.

After dropping our luggage off, we took out some money from the bank machine then hit the beach. The weather was fairly nice, but it started to rain after a few hours so we grabbed some lunch and by the time we finished the rain had stopped. I'll continue the story later, I really just wanted to let everyone know I didn't die, yet. We haven't had any problems thus far, although some irish boys who are staying here had a mugging experience yesterday a few blocks from the beach. But they said it was very non-violent 😊

I'll touch base again soon and post some pics.

Lata

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