Blogs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 225

After the traumatic journey to Rio, with countless layovers and a slight losing of my way in Houston airport leading to passing through security twice... I finally arrived in Copacabana beach in Rio. The Mellow Yellow hostel is fantastic, 5 floors of fun (the stairs are a killer) with loads of great people. The first night had a pub quiz, which my team (all Brits, Katy, Rachel and Terry the hostel owner) did not do to well at, the highest score was less than 20 out of 40 though, followed by a search for a salsa club which ended quickly when we found a gay club with a Cher act. What more could you want after 24 hours of travelling?? Day 2 was sight seeing, the views from Sugar Loaf are amazing, this is a really ... read more

So Brazil. Turns out the Spanish and the Portuguese dreamt up some line of longitude to separate their New World empires. Then they discovered Brazil. Or something like that. Long and short of that is they don't even bother speaking Spanish here. Well that's no bloody good, is it?! Anyways, four months of lazily travelling far too slowly meant so far I'd cut short my stay in Costa Rica from three weeks to two days, scrubbed around Panama altogether and put Cuba off until later. So far so good. Flying into Sao Paulo late January was a bit of a shock really. My biggest problems were assuming I'd be fine with Spanish - which I guess now is getting pretty OK - and not having a guidebook. English language books in Rio are surprisingly thin on ... read more

As we (especially Ran, my flight partner) wanted to 'lizrom' and make as little plans as possible, we did a reservation only for the first night. What we didn´t know, was that on the following day there was going to be a free concert by the Rolling Stones in Rio, so all the hostels / hotels / pausads were overbooked. After some time we finally managed to find a really lousy apartment, and the owner made us pay for 2 nights. We rented it with a couple of israeli girls, and Tom from England, who has been traveling for 2 years. The best thing that I can tell about the appartmnet is the interesting stories Tom has told me. At evening we tried our luck and went to the concert. Besides us, 1.2 million people also ... read more

Voila deux semaines que je suis la et je dois dire que c'est vraiment passe tres vite! Demain je quitte l auberge de jeunesse d Ipanema pour rejoindre les Australiens dans l appart a Copacabana. Ce fut deux semaines riches en rencontre et fetes mais je vous promets que bientot je me remettrer a faire des visites plus culturelles, malheureusement il n'a pas fait tres beau (mais tjrs chaud) et donc jai prefere attendre un temps plus joli pour faire des visites et des photos. Par contre depuis deux dimanches je deviens un vrai religieux bresilien puisque ca fait effectivement deux fois que je vais au stade du Maracana voir un match de foot.... chacun ca religion comme dirait certain.... Bon, faisons un petit resume de la semaine : Lundi on a celebre les 27 ans ... read more

pulsating samba beats, expansive white beaches crowded with sun tanned bodies, and impressive and scenic landscapes filling in the backdrop....this is daily life in rio de janeiro. i wasn't quite sure what to expect upon arrival in rio. i had decided to go for one week, traveling to and from buenos aires. definitely not enough time to do justice to the expansive country of brazil, but it seemed a shame to skip brazil completely...especially with its infamous reputation for fun living, exorbitant nightlife, and unparalleled dance and music origins. i stayed in a cute little hostel, called ipanema beach house, nestled into a quiet street in the posh barrio of ipanema. as many are compelled to sing "and she's go-ing to san-fran-cis-co....la la la.." when i tell them where i am from; ipanema may be one ... read more