Rio in the rain

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My stay in Rio isn't going exactly as planned. With the exception of last Thursday morning the weather has been consistently bad, sometimes even raining heavily. As a result, Rio' s main tourist attractions - the beaches and the two hills overlooking the city - are off limits. Instead, I went on a favela tour, hanged out in markets, wandered around the centre a bit but mostly during the day I have been doing just nothing.

This brings me to the other main problem about my stay here: the hostel. It turns out the night I stayed awake until 4.30 am chatting was not an exception, the hostel comes alive at night. People here sleep until very late and don't go to bed before 5 am. Some are partying and getting drunk, some are just watching telly or surfing the web but they are all here until the sun rises. Obviously nobody forces me to do the same but I tend to always go with the flow and I seem to have a problem about being the first one that goes to sleep. And so I stay awake too, talking, drinking or even cooking in the middle of the night. In the morning I don't feel exactly energetic and the weather does the rest.

Why did I not leave the hostel? Actually I tried. I had contacted a couchsurfer and even took my backpack to his place but it turned out he leaves extremely far, there is no transport at night and he has no time to show me around anywhere. So I came back to this hostel because it is excellently located and cheap. Or maybe I became addicted to this unhealthy lifestyle and I just can't leave.

To end on a happier note, not everything has been negative here. The nights that I went out I had a fantastic time. Friday night I was in the Lapa neighbourhood, walking through the busy street where a lot of people gather to eat, drink and listen to music. Saturday I went to Samba school, which incidentally is not a samba class but people reharsing for the Carnival so a full night of Samba, caipirinha and fun. And yesterday I went to a club in a favela where they played Brazilian funky, the favela's version of hip hop, and I danced for three hours non stop.

I'm signing off now, it's 8.15 pm and it's almost shower time.

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