One delicious year of adventures: Bus bus and Samba Party!

19th -20th March

Bus bus and more bus!

Brasilian Countryside

Did anyone ask for a 23 hour bus journey? Ah yes we sure did. Iguazu to Rio please and make it snappy, please. Ok, says the bus man only 23 hours, no biggie. So off we went, customs first and that went smoothly. You gotta love the European passport, it is so easy to travel. Anyway on the road we settle in to our seats and watch movies all day. Night time comes and we realise that there are no food service on this bus, even if it says there was suppose to be so we have to settle for a first taste of Brasilian grub in the shape of a microwaved pizza slice......mmmmm I hear you say. On route we witness a road accident which does make your stomach turn slightly especially harsh to see a head injury. Poor bikers.

Waking up at 7 am and we are still on the bus, what a surprise. We pass some extra green and extra windy hills of Brasil on route via Sao Paulo and onwards to Rio de Janeiro. We made good time and pulled up at the Novo Rio Bus terminal at 12 pm, right on schedule. Time to catch a cab, so we join forces with two guys to make the journey cheaper. Taxi's are bastards everywhere and the prices are always through the roof for us gringo's. Even our attempts of speaking Portugese does not make them believe that we are local. So we get to our hostel for a mere R$60 (€28 split 4 ways luckily). The room we have is a spacious apartment style with kitchen, fridge and everything one could want. We are pleased considering Rio is a bloody expensive place.

First night we are ready for a party and are meeting up with Luis, Nicola, Sue and Steve and heading into Lapa (the party centre of Rio). Wecatch the tube and only bring enough money for the night out. We make it to the Samba club called Scenarium one of the hottest clubs in Rio. It is cool with three floors, and a different system to order drinks etc, you get given a card when you enter, they also take your picture, then you just order and drink and pay at the end. Weird but it works, although the problem is if you have only a certain amount of cash you could get stuck at the end. Not to worry, we survived, and had a blast. And Luis sorted us out with a cab at around 4.30 am. The taxis are mental here and do not obey the red light signal at night, oopsie where are the police when you need them, ha! Good night!