Touching down in Rio

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Well, this first update is long overdue. With that in mind, I may take a bit of a different direction with this blog. But for now, let's see how it works out...

The 19 hour journey to Rio through Chicago and Sao Paolo was a bit of a trek. I didn't manage to sleep a whole lot as I rarely do on flights, so I was pretty tired when I arrived. I was sad to see the weather was partly cloudy when I checked into my hostel, but that didn´t stop me from walking a few blocks to Leblon beach and enjoying the sound of the waves. Due to my jet lag and travel exhaustion, I went to bed pretty early. I was excited for the day to follow as I planned to meet my friend Keks who was studying in Rio for a week. Waiting for him to arrive gave me some time to watch the semi finals of the rugby world cup. I sat down next to a Londoner who lives in Australia and the pub began to fill up with foreigners (mainly kiwis and South Africans). It made for a nice atmosphere and even some locals made it into the mix. It was nice to catch the game considering I had watched many of them in the UK.

After the game I got ready and met up with Keks and some of his classmates. We had a few drinks at their AirBnB and went out for a late dinner at this cool open air restaurant called Belmont. Servers come around with drinks and appy´s and you pick off the trays and are charged as you eat. It was packed with locals and spilled out into the sidewalks and streets. It was a lot of fun to eat, drink and socialize with a great atmosphere. After dinner we decided to head to the place where most Rio de Janeirans go to party in the wee hours, the party neighbourhood of Lapa. When we arrived, the streets were sprawling with Brazillians at the many different bars and clubs scattered throughout. We managed to bump into some other classmates and checked out a few establishments in the area, most playing Samba, Reggaeton, top 40 and other Latin favorites. Once we noticed the sun was planning on coming up soon, we decided to head back to Leblon and get some much needed rest. Although getting out of bed was probably last on the things we wanted to do, we managed to put together a little reality tour of the main sites in Rio. We checked out Christ the Redeemer which was pretty spectacular despite the heavy cloud that was socked in. We managed to get a few photos and it was a cool place to just relax. We were pretty bagged afterwards so we had a power nap and prepared for more nightly debauchery. That night, went to a cool outside lounge/indoor nightclub which played some pretty decent house music and hung out with one of Keks' friends and her independent movie producer friends. It was nice to chill out and have some nice conversation with some new friends.

The next day I met a girl from Sydney, Australia named Jess who also happened to be my roomate. We decided we'd be sight seeing buddies and checked out more sights such as Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar) and then to the Seleron Steps. That evening we went to the beach as it was one of the nicer evenings. Swimming at dusk was a great experience as the air was still quite warm and the water was pretty warm too. Leblon beach was absolutely amazing. It was so picturesque with towering mountains in the background and soft sand. Keks and his classmates ended up joining us and we took it relatively easy that night and went to a great restaurant for dinner.

My final day in Rio, I decided to take it easy, so Jess and I, along with a new girl that we met from Italy (Alex) went to Ipanema beach and had a few drinks and relaxed. It was nice hearing their travel stories as both of them had been traveling for quite some time around South America. That night was my final night in Rio, and I flew out the next morning fairly early. We showered up met up with Keks again, had another great meal and ended up going back to the club we went to on a previous night. Needless to say, it was a night of very little sleep before my flight.

My next destination is Florianopolis, Brazil where I look forward to some more relaxing time on the beach, and perhaps some surfing. I welcome having a relatively low agenda on the touristy sightseeing front.

Before I left Canada for Rio, I was actually quite worried. I heard horror stories from people saying that it is very unsafe and that I would have to be very careful. While I may have taken this out of context, my experience was vastly different. The people in Rio were very special, and although many didn't speak a lot of English, they were happy to try their best when answering questions or when I'd go to order food. The vibe of Rio was anything but unsafe and I would consider living here. While there are still definite rough spots, I was able to navigate around them without problem (knock on wood).

This entry is about 3 weeks late. So with that in mind, as stated above, I may take a bit of a different approach to this. Instead of detailing the specifics of what I'm up to in a sort of story mode, which I'm finding may be a bit boring to read, I may just place entries summarizing a little more briefly on what has happened, and perhaps focus moreso on highlights, lowlights and thoughts. If you have any comments about this, feel free to let me know!

Anyway, my travels continue and I am definitely having a great time. I miss everyone at home and look forward to meeting more wonderful people moving forward.

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