Blogs from Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 31

Touching down in Rio made me realise three things: 1. We are so over long bus journeys (our trip to Rio being our last and longest at 23 mind numbing hours) 2. We only had 2 weeks until we headed home......and 3. I am officially an old fart The first two speak for themselves.... but let me explain the third. When trying to book a hostel in Rio we had discovered that they were both pricey and few in numbers, especially in the area we wanted to be based Copacabana/Ipanema. So with little choice I made the fatal school boy error of booking one with a rooftop bar!! 3 words that would usually make anyone who was a fan of a decent nights kip run a mile. Upon arrival the rooftop bar became an even greater ... read more

So today we manage to get a refund on the remaining days and decide to find better accomodation or one that is at least not so noisy. We search through or handy books and find one in Copacabana and there is a room available for us. We pack our backs and catch a cab there - what a lovely hostel this was, so beautiful and clean and quite. We are pleased as its in Copacabana, two minutes from the beach.....this is the life. Carry are bags to our room and think of enjoying a lovely shower only to find we have left our keys at the last hostel after locking our bags. We quickly find out where the Metro is and how we go about getting back to Botafogo. We catch the Metro and head back ... read more

Had a ball in Rio, its such a party town. Twas a balmy 28deg C, and Copacabana beach was just on our doorstep. The brazillians are fitness crazy, and speedo crazy... a little too revealing at times! C. beach is class.. miles of white sand, in a bay full of islands and overlooked by the Sugarloaf mountain. And to cool off you can get a street seller to hack off the top of a 'coco' for you with his machete. Its basically a cocunut, with a sugary cool liquid inside, that is similar to melon juice. Its all good. Their caprahina cocktails are the business as well.. its sugar cane rum, limes, bit of sugar and ice... lethal. But rocket fuel is good in Rio! The city wasn't as dangerous as we expected, although the ... read more

Went to get some tickets from the bus station at the other side of town. Getting there on a bus was the craziest ride we have ever had on public transport. The drivers are completely mental and it is pretty much like a race track with everyone taking the racing line to maximise speed round the corners. Sat on the beach this afternoon, with some big waves going on and loads of people surfing and playing football & volleyball as you would expect. It was a bit odd today to notice that there are no seagulls at all, only vultures and storks (and absolutely loads of them circling above). ... read more

Man, I made it. Victory is sweet. You know, looking back on ten months of travel to get here, I have a lot of thoughts. But here ends my trip, and so ends this blog. I don´t really want to try to tell about my times here. This is a different phase of my trip, and plus the internet in rio is really expensive. As are a lot of things. But it´s worth it, because I´ve never seen a city so cool! And I got an appartment one block from the beach with an ocean view. It´s between copacabana and ipenema, a nice location. I´m moving in tomorrow...I went to the beach one day here so far with my friend Ariel, from Rio. We juggled a soccer ball with two dutch guys, then did some body ... read more