Rio - Lagoa and farewell Gav

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Yesterday I was supposed to go on a favela tour but was unfortunately postponed until this afternoon. They said it was because of problems with the bus, i'm hoping it's not because of an escalating gang war or some such. So instead I rented a bike and went round the lagoon which was incredible. They have city bikes which are a little tricky to use as a tourist because you need to unlock the bikes through the app, which will cost quite a bit through roaming, but definitely worth it. It costs $40hkd for a month pass for the bikes, whereas you'd probably pay that much for renting a bike for an hour. It was incredibly hot yesterday and had left the sun cream in my room so had to head back after a couple of hours as it felt like my face was melting.

Bumped into the girls and we made a trip to the Havaiana shop. Probably not the smartest move going with 4 girls but was good fun. Then 2 of us got bikes out and made another trip round the beaches and lagoons. From Copacabana we cycled to Ipenema and then across to the lagoon and back again. Second time i'd done that trip in a day and was more than happy to as the bike track is right along the beach.

Was told that between point 8-10 on Ipanema beach is where all the beautiful Brazilians are to be found. I should warn you that cycling along this particular stretch of beach is hazardous as you will not have your eyes on the road. Came close to death a few times because of a not so subtle double take.

Went out for Japanese last night. Had actually already eaten but after 5 hours biking around Rio a second dinner was called for. We'd arranged to have good bye drinks for our Aussie friend, who was the glue in bringing a group of us together in the hostel. After an inhuman amount of shots he left at midnight, smashed, to begin his 24 hour journey home. He got a slow clap on his last shot as he was leaving which was a pretty awesome send off.

Ended up heading out to Guimo Pub, which is a hostel that has a club downstairs. They have a rather strange system here where you're given a card, more like a menu actually as you enter that your drinks are written on. They list all the drinks and prices on this card and then just tick off what you've ordered. You only pay at the end of the night. A good and bad idea I think. Good in that it's much quicker to get a drink and you're not fumbling around for money at the bar. Bad because it'll be very, very easy to overlook how much you're spending and end up with a huge bill. Plus we had to queue to leave (because there was a queue for the cashier) which was a really strange experience.

So suffering just a little bit today. Ass is rather sore from.... the bike ride. Obviously. Doesn't help that this place has quite possibly the worst beds i've slept on too. I can feel all of the metal slats underneath the 'mattress', feels like sleeping on a griddle pan.

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