Windsor Excelsior Hotel Rio de Janeiro

Rio is a fantastic city, I´ve never seen such a diverse mix of<br>people in one nationality. It´s a very modern city and actually no<br>cheaper than Madrid when it comes to things like transport and eating<br>out.<br> <br>The firs day here, Saira and I did a 2 hour jungle hike up the<br>corcovado mountain, right up to the statue of christ at the top, we<br>were the ...

... the game being a bit rubbish (Fluminense are currently ´doing a Leeds´ for anyone interested in football) but the experience and atmosphere were both great. <br> Off to Ilha Grande early (5 a.m.!!) tomorrow morning for some jungle hiking and more frolicking in the sea. Looking forward to staying somewhere a biut more peaceful, but Rio has been excellent. Will let you know how our jungle adventure goes in a few days!

... moved room *nd in our *bsence from the site missed, you&#8217;ve guessed it, *nother *lmighty row over people not pulling their weight. ( I should cl*rify *t this point th*t these rows gener*lly just involved * r*nt followed by *n *bsent huff). We finished off our quot* *nd then he*ded b*ck to our pl*ce to enjoy * quiet d*y in the r*in. 3 of us he*ded down town for * shopping mission, still * bit drizzly but *dequ*te for the purch*sing of donuts (the cust*rd within ...

... the two borders, so we set out in the hot sun with our packs. We are still looking to smack the person who told us that. 3km later, we found a border guard sitting beside a bush on the side of the road, who seemed shocked to find 2 Canadians walking between the borders. He assured us we had only 1 km (uphill) left to go to get to the Argentina side. There we caught a bus into town. It was a relief to speak Spanish again in Argentina, and we realized how far our ...

... everyday. <br><br>Frankie's: Our Home Away From Home<br>Our first hostel sucked, so after visiting the beach on June 5, we went hostel shopping. I also had to find a Skype connection as I had my interview with the NYC Civic Corps (a pilot AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer program in NYC). We found a hostel courtyard on Barrao do Torre, just three blocks from the beach, and came upon Hostel New Ipanema. Run by a 27-year old Brasilian, Franklin, it is a small ...

Went to Sao Paulo for the weekend to meet up with Mario, who I met in the pantanal doing a tour also. Had a few drinks at the hostel. Had a cachaça shot, never again. Went out to a small samba bar with a live band which was really good. Walked around town the next day and didn't see a real lot, but some crazy preachers on the streets. Saw a movie 'I love you, man'. It's awesome, go see it. Went out again that night to a ...

... of rich kids, not much of an atmosphere. Romeo just wanted to go cos he knew somebody in the band there that would let him play to feed his massive ego. He played 6 songs, he was pretty good actually. But afterwards he started telling me that he should be famous and that people should be paying 150 reais for his shows. He even said that he was a genius! Total knob. So that was Thurs night, just cut our losses then and got a taxi back into town. Fri was my last full day in Rio, but ...

What happens at Carnival, stays at Carnival and that is all I have to say about that. Ok seriously. It was a pretty awesome week, but it had its ups and downs and you did have to do some research in order to make the most of your time and I think all of us feel like we could have managed to fit a bit more in...but at the same time what we did do was pretty amazing. Arriving in Rio was a bit like something out of a bad dream. Slightly hazy and detached but with an ...

... or even say a word. Eventually a local couple walked us the 1 block to the police station, said it is totally normal and apologized for Brazil. At the police station stood 6 marvelous officers, inside shooting the breeze - thanks guys! We let them know what happened and their response was that Rio has special tourist Police and we have to wait for them. We spent 1.5 hour waiting. While there we watched a few drama's unfold. First there was an ...

... climbing cable cars and Ipanema beach.<br><br> <br><br>By now the sun was definitely on a one way express ticket below the horizon and the sky was beginning to show flashes of colour to give us a taste of what to expect from the sunset. <br><br> <br><br>Unfortunately (as has been so ...