Mr & Mrs – A blog of our round the world trip travelling through South America and South East Asia » First 24hrs in Rio! Includes such delights as Copacabana Beach and Rio water…

First 24hrs in Rio! Includes such delights as Copacabana Beach and Rio water…

Posted by Steve on May 22, 2009, at 10:01 pm | Category: Brazil | One comment

We’re here, we’ve done it, we’ve hightailed it out of the UK in style – chauffeur driven (thanks Dad!), drinking Champagne (thanks Jenny!) and were then plied with alcohol and stuffed with food (thanks British Airways!). A late night packing and an early morning cleaning meant that finally getting on the flight was a sigh of relief. But… what was Rio going to be like? Would our hostel be crawling with roaches? Would British Airways lose our bags? Would we end up on a deserted island a la Lost?!

Thankfully, everything turned out great and was progressively less frantic. Although BA – sort out your movies, quality & sound is worse than a bittorrent cam! Honestly for my first long haul flight (Lynette is a seasoned pro) I had a surprisingly good time… not so sure about some of the 36hr bus trips we have planned later…


Leaving the UK! View at Picasa Leaving the UK!21-May-2009 11:12, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 100

So, we were picked up from the airport by mad crazy driver Lorenzo, makes Mr. Knott’s driving look tame, but it meant we arrived at our hostel swiftly and with a glowing adrenalin buzz. The hostel was down a bit of a back street and we were slightly worried, but the recommendations were valid, El Misti is friendly and has a great chilled atmosphere.

Breakfast was actually great and a nice surprise with melon, cereal, cheese & ham etc. Some of the sauces I couldn’t identify, I’m expecting that to happen a lot over the next five months. Room is a pretty big double for only R$80 (about £25) with shared bathroom (which oddly requires that used toilet paper goes in a bin, not in the toilet). Our budget while in Brazil is R$160 per person so half is going on our bed and our breakfast, seems ok and we’re definitely glad we have a room rather than a shared dorm. You still 100% need ear plugs and we’re very glad we have them!

First five days in Rio

Today was always going to be a Copacabana beach day, we’ve got five(ish) days in Rio and we need to acclimatise to the lack of 9-5. Its a tough life! The weather for today is sunny (27°c in the day and 21°c at night), and for the next five days its not going to change much.


Winter in Rio… View at Picasa Winter in Rio…22-May-2009 16:22, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 100

It took us a while to get there, unlike in other countries we’ve visited where they have a currency exchange booth on every street corner, here we wandered the streets for two hours until we found one, only to realise the hostel actually offered a better exchange rate! Anyway, hopped on the metro, chilled out for the afternoon on Copacabana. Couldn’t stay any longer; despite the fact the temperature is fantastic all year round, it is still winter! Come 5pm, the sun is on its way down so its back to the hostel, where I’m currently typing this, and where we’ve just found out Rio apparently has water issues occasionally, as in there is none. For a few hours…!

So its baby wipes and cleanser before we join into the hostel BBQ that’s happening this evening, before heading to the streets on a jazz/samba evening we’ve been invited along to. Tomorrow may well end up being a beach day again… Sunday we have grand plans to climb Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue, the beginning of our training for a planned nine day hike across the Andes in Peru.