Advertisement
Published: April 28th 2006
Arrived in Rio safely, to be greeted by rain, arrrgghh!
It wasn't the best of starts as we got rail roaded into taking a taxi from the airport (the bus station was supposed to be 'not too safe' in Rio) and we were still jet lagged.
As we drove through the streets we tried to explain to the driver in our limited Portuguese (one phrase book) that we wanted to go to a street and then find a hostel from there. He couldn´t understand that we didn't have a reservation.
After arriving in the street we wanted we paid and got out of the cab to torrential rain!!! It was only after 10 minutes walking through the street that I realised I´d left my wallet in the cab, with my cards in it! Not the best of starts.....
After getting over the initial shock of facing the prospect of no available money for a year (yikees) we found the hostel we were looking for and checked in. Needless to say my cards were cancelled ok and I'm now using my travellers cheques until I can get new cards.
The next day the weather was a bit
better so we travelled to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain to gain a great view of the city, if only it had been sunny! Luckily the next day when we visited the Cocovado (Christ Statue) the weather came nice for it. We travelled up the mountain on the tradition cog train and the views from there were absolutely amazing. The following day in Rio the weather was great, 34 degrees, and we got our first beach day in and a chance to check out the locals.
From Rio we caught a bus to Angras Dos Rios and then a ferry to Ihla Grande (Big Island, if you couldn't guess) where we teamed up with 3 English and 2 Israelis and rented a house. It was pretty cool, although there were not enough beds so Matt and I had to share a double... My back was glued to the mattress! It was a bank holiday for Brazillians so every place was twice as much as normal... We did a 2hr 30 min hike to the ´best beach in Brazil´, Lopes Mendes. The hike was over 2 mountains and through Jungle, on the way a snake jumped out the the
tree above me and then slithered away into the undergrowth. It was bright green so don´t know if it was poisonous.. but it was about one and a half metres long!
I am now in a Youth hostel in Iguazu, we plan to vist the Falls tomorrow...
Checking out for next time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 76; dbt: 0.0803s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
