Arrival at Rio De Janeiro

After a pretty long wait at Santiago airport and a few spanish lessons from a nice brit lady I met in the shuttle, we were off bound for Rio over the Andies! I had been trying to figure out whether it was better to get a taxi to the Stone of the Beach Hostel or the Real bus to the block nearby and walk. I discussed this with Katie, the lady I met on the shuttle and we decided to get one between us. Once I got to the aiport I random bumped into Pete Hudson from Waiheke when we were both collecting out bags. Totally random, especially as I only speaking to someonea few days before leaving about Pete being over there. He said the bus was sweet so I decided to get it. However, when they didn't accept us dollars, I had to go up about 4 flights of stairs to the ATM to get money out, where I met Katie and another guy from my hostel in Santigago at Bellavista. When the ATM would not let me get money out (only just been able to a few hours ago!) I swapped some USD and the three of us jumped in the taxi with all our gear. We negotiated a price and set off, even before the other chap was in the taxi, running over his foot!! I figured 60 split betwen the three of us was a lot better than the 65 quoted by the hostel and better than the bus at 8 Real. At speeds of around 140kmh heading to copacabana beach we took several detours and at times headed the wrong direction completely but he seemed to have it under control. We made it to my stop first, which was good given i didn~t want the guy firing up and disputing the price etc. All good arrived safely!

The door room is tiny, with 8 beds in it (bunks) and no room for gear storage it is a bit of a joke, but good fun given the company. There were 5 Irish gals and a tosser old American guy so it was all good. We all went upstairs to the roof top bar for a few drinks, even though I had to borrow some money of two of my room mates given I still couldn't get the ATM to work (I love the easy going nature of travellers!) . We ended up heading to Mellow Yellow hostel and joining in on their Lapa night out tour, an area which has a HUGE street party every Friday night. It was simply awesome, with cheap food, drinks and Brazillian beats all all night dancing on the stre below a huge towering aquaduct! Best time I've had so far. We got in around 4pm and hit the hay. Rio is awesome!!! I'm just waiting now for a few clear days to go up the Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeamer Statue to take in the vantage points and awesome views. It's hellishly expensive here so looking forward to getting into Argentina.