Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

I got up this morning, had some breakfast at the hostel, and got my stuff packed up so I could finally get out of that craphole. At about 10:30am I headed over to Gray and Jo’s guesthouse on the beach and chilled with them for a bit. I was able to leave my bags there and we went to one of the little cafe’s on the beach to have a juice before the boat ride. I was surprisingly sprite this morning, although I can’t say the same for my Canadian friends. They were both feeling a little hungover, so I was glad to see the caipirinhas had not only hit me.

We caught the boat from the Aquario hostel at 1:30pm and headed back to Conceicao. This ride felt like it took twice as long as the ride to get to the island, but by about 2:30pm we were back on the mainland. We didn’t have to wait long for our vans to get there, but there was all kinds of confusion about which van I was supposed to get in. There were two vans going to Rio, but to get to the right neighborhoods, they were trying to separate people into the correct vans. It took ages to get it sorted out, but finally I was in a van with Madalena, and Gray and Jo were in the other van going to the airport. I said bye to Gray and Jo and hopefully it won’t be too long before I can catch up with them in Toronto or Edinburgh. They’re fun people to hang out with.

As it turned out, both vans went to the airport, Gray and Jo got out and Madalena and I had to switch into their van. I think the drivers were pretty confused about what they wanted to do, but we got to wave goodbye one more time. We then headed into the city and it was pretty surprising to me just how hilly the city is. Also, because of the hills, the roads are an absolute mess. They are all really narrow, and there are a bunch of one ways. Of course none of this is helped by Carnaval closing down a bunch of streets.

I got dropped off at the Art Hostel at about 5pm, and I couldn’t be happier with the service of Easy Transfer Brasil. They were so easy to deal with, and the door to door service was excellent. The Art Hostel certainly isn’t the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in, but it’s really nice to have wifi again. I’m in a four person dorm room, but I’m the only one here, and the guy at reception doesn’t anticipate anyone else coming in. So I’m happy about that. I went down to the corner of the street and got some feijoada for dinner, but with chicken instead of pork. It was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. I also went around the corner to find the apartment I’m going to move into tomorrow morning, and it’s only like a four minute from my hostel. At least I know where I’m going tomorrow so I can get over into my nice air conditioned flat for the week!