Windsor Excelsior Hotel Rio de Janeiro

... through the cloud lots today. We're hoping for a clearer day tomorrow to go check him out and Sugar Loaf mountain.

Plan for this evening is a few drinks and possibly heading out with others from the hostel to sample some of Rio's night life. I actually still can't believe we're here!

Adios!

P.S. expect some pics next time if I manage to upload them

... on his p*rt reve*led we were *t the wrong pier. Legged it over, got on the deck *s it w*s only mizzly now *nd off we were. S*id goodbye to emm* *t dock *s we were getting *irport bus, s*id hello to her *t the next service st*tion. Got to *irport, s*id goodbye to se*mus *nd then s*id hello *g*in not 20 mins l*ter before h*nging *round for 4 hours to w*it for Iberi* desk to open to see if there w*s room on the flight, fin*lly sorted for the price of $175 (forgot to *sk ...

... largest patch of urban jungle in the world, has pretty beaches, SUPERHOT and exotic people, has absolutely exquisite shopping and of course Ipanema Beach! So ok, itīs easy to be cynical about Rio- theft, touristy Ipanema, favelas (like in City of God...) but having seen faaaaaaar more culturally homogenous and more overtly affluent towns and cities in South America (like most of Chile or BsAs), i say these people are glass half-empty types and not ...

... Our third bus ran on a little spare tire, required a sketchy barge crossing, and decided on a spirited detour in rush hour past the bus station and our hostel in La Paz adding the 18th hour to our bus trip.

After a pleasant two day wait in La Paz for our Brazilian Visa’s, we were off to Brazil in a surprisingly comfortable overnight bus. Due to weekend overbooking, we were forced to continue our travels, after only a 5 hour break in a ...

... picked up a bit, and Pablo chatted while we glided round the sky, every so often he did this little nose dive to pick the wind up again, I had a near heart attack every time!!! we were up there for bout 15mins, landing was fun, he hadnīt gone thru the landing with me, thankfully I had heard bout 5 different instructors coach people bout the landing while waiting, so I new what to do OhhhYESH! until it came to the landing and I couldnīt remember ...

... the porter wouldn't get a locksmith because he thought we were bad people and Camila had locked us inside her house on purpose. We had met this guy about five times over the previous two days as he let us in and out of our friends house. So we missed our flight because a porter apparently thought we were being deliberately imprisoned in an appartment for being bad people and had to pay $100 for another. But it was a nice appartment and Rio was a very cool city.

... Portuguese language sites. Curitiba and the state of Parana have some pretty decent sites if you can read Portuguese. I am usually a 'fly by the seat of your pants' traveller, but since having worked at VirtualTourist and seen the value in research, I've become much more of a know before I go traveler. OK, success with my first travel blog post!

... interesting...it was mainly in portugese, a good test for my second day, managed to learn how to say please and thank you which is a good start. Then the tour went to the football stadium although not inside it (sorry steve!), and the carnival pardade which is huge, they were already working on it for the carnival, it must be amazing to watch it there. Although from the sounds of things most people dont even end up seeing the parade because there are ...

... on the season. Originally I wanted to stay in hotel but when I first looked back in July the cheapest I could find was 300 pounds for one night... Hmmm, back to the hostel plan then. In the summer I booked El Misti, a hostel a mere five blocks from Copocabana beach. At the time all I worried about was the location, I wanted to be able to walk home at the end of the party. Then, as I became more familiar ...

We nearly fainted when we woke up early, opened the windows... and saw BLUE sky above us! Woooh! After 3 solid days of clouds and rain, the sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray :)

The weather here can change very quickly so we were determined to make the most of the clear ...