Well, we’ve been in Rio for three full days now and have not been mugged or had anything stolen. Yay!
We left Natal on a true red eye flight at 2:40am and arrived in Rio around 6am. Seriously. We took a cab from the airport to Copacabana and got to see some of the favelas from the freeway. Rio’s infamous wealth gap is certainly well deserved.
We went straight to our hostel, Che Lagarto, only to find out that we couldn’t check in until 2pm. Fuck! We were exhausted and only wanted to lie down and sleep. Nothing more, really… so we did what any sensible traveling duo in a foreign city renowned for its crime would do. We bought a blanket and slept on the beach. Copacabana beach, in fact. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and we managed to snag a spot of shade under some palm trees. However, the shade moved at some point because I awoke with a nice farmer’s tan on my left arm and a tan line running down my face from where I had used my hat to cover my eyes. Nice.
We finally did get checked in and were able to start our relaxing and sightseeing. Monday night we stayed in at the hostel and ate at a pescia churrasco (fish bbq) and talked with some of the other guests. Hostel Che Lagarto has a bar so that helps to keep people around for conversation.
We’ve done a good bit of shopping and exploring of Copacabana. My Portuguese has improved greatly in the past few days, though it still sounds horrible. I’m able to communicate most thoughts though and complete many verbal exchanges. Though, more people speak english or at least some english than I had originally been led to believe.
Today we took the Trem de Corcovado up to see Cristo Redentor up close and to view the cidade maravilhoso from the top. The views were indeed marvelous.
