Saturday, March 31, 2007
24 March, 2007
The world’s fifth - largest country, music, dancing, jungle and partying all await us in this colorful, vibrant part of the world. We arrived in Rio de Janeiro early in the morning after a 9 and a half hour flight. We were quite tired to say the least and all we could think about was finding a hotel and getting some sleep. Well, the day didn’t really work out like that. We took forever finding accommodation. We caught the bus into Copacabana from the airport and then we started hunting. Everywhere here is so expensive considering what you get and we eventually landed up in a hostel. The actual hostel was really fun and funky, but it wasn’t for us. There were mainly dormitories but the double room they had was tiny; like a cell. No windows, just four walls and a bed with no room for our bags. This was not an option and there were only shared bathrooms (for about 200 people). This place reminded me of the catteries that we visited before we left CT, just with humans instead of cats, lying all over the show in their bunks-quite funny actually. Anyway, after all of that and now that you can hopefully picture the whole thing, I waited at the hostel whilst Rich went hunting for a place to stay. By now it was nearly lunch time and it must have been about 30 degrees outside. We were dripping with sweat (and we had our smart clothes on in case we got to fly business class) and we just wanted to get rid of the bags! Rich eventually came back; I had already met half the hostel, and we moved to an apartment that he had found which was affiliated to a hotel. We finally got settled and got to the famous Copacabana beach. No, there were no topless chicks with g-strings. Don’t know where they are?! We walked a bit and then fell asleep on the beach. We took a walk along the promenade and had to taste ‘The’ famous Caipirinha (drink made from sugarcane spirit and crushed citrus). There were many people walking and running and cycling, lots of dogs too, all well- groomed. The beach was now very busy with football and volleyball games. It seems like everyone tries to keep fit and lead a healthy life. We were very impressed and decided that we would join them!
The world’s fifth - largest country, music, dancing, jungle and partying all await us in this colorful, vibrant part of the world. We arrived in Rio de Janeiro early in the morning after a 9 and a half hour flight. We were quite tired to say the least and all we could think about was finding a hotel and getting some sleep. Well, the day didn’t really work out like that. We took forever finding accommodation. We caught the bus into Copacabana from the airport and then we started hunting. Everywhere here is so expensive considering what you get and we eventually landed up in a hostel. The actual hostel was really fun and funky, but it wasn’t for us. There were mainly dormitories but the double room they had was tiny; like a cell. No windows, just four walls and a bed with no room for our bags. This was not an option and there were only shared bathrooms (for about 200 people). This place reminded me of the catteries that we visited before we left CT, just with humans instead of cats, lying all over the show in their bunks-quite funny actually. Anyway, after all of that and now that you can hopefully picture the whole thing, I waited at the hostel whilst Rich went hunting for a place to stay. By now it was nearly lunch time and it must have been about 30 degrees outside. We were dripping with sweat (and we had our smart clothes on in case we got to fly business class) and we just wanted to get rid of the bags! Rich eventually came back; I had already met half the hostel, and we moved to an apartment that he had found which was affiliated to a hotel. We finally got settled and got to the famous Copacabana beach. No, there were no topless chicks with g-strings. Don’t know where they are?! We walked a bit and then fell asleep on the beach. We took a walk along the promenade and had to taste ‘The’ famous Caipirinha (drink made from sugarcane spirit and crushed citrus). There were many people walking and running and cycling, lots of dogs too, all well- groomed. The beach was now very busy with football and volleyball games. It seems like everyone tries to keep fit and lead a healthy life. We were very impressed and decided that we would join them!
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 6:04 PM 
