So the tour is over and it's time to pack up and move to the hostel... It's sad to say goodbye to Thomas who has been with us for 7 days now, his insightful information, his funny jokes and helpfulness will be sorely missed. It really made a difference to how much i enjoyed the tour the tour, also not sure I would have survived the rainforest walk without holding him in a vice grip!
Jamie my room mate through the tour is also at the same hostel so we head there together, we both booked private rooms (advertised as twins) and neither can remember if it's with a bathroom or AC... We will soon find out. We check in and I get the bathroom, Jamie the AC with her new room mate Lucy. The room is on the 3rd floor and I am glad when Kyri from the tour offers to help me with my bags.! So here we go, I open the room expecting a nice spacious 2 twin bed room with a bathroom and get a shoe box, with bunk beds (at this point I thank god that I'm not actually sharing with anyone!!!) and the bathroom is basically a shower over a toilet... I can just about get all my stuff in and still move. Compact and bijou is a massive exaggeration!
Anyway, I head for food to a place recommended in the LP, and then attempt to pick up my laundry! Looks like there's a snag... Come back tomorrow!! Thankfully, I do still have some clean clothes, so I head back to get ready for our first real night on the town in Rio!
I meet up with people from the tour group and head for dinner first, can't go out on an empty stomach. We get a giant pizza from a local restaurant and some capri-vodkas (basically capriahinas with vodka instead of rum) very nice!!! The giant pizza turns up and having ordered the Brazilian equivalent of a meat feast are a little surprised by the arrival of chicken!! So after a little discussion they go to replace it, basically it returns with the original topping but now some extra meat!! Oh well, we are starving and dig in.. It's pretty soon gone!
Next we head to the Copacabana Palace to try and get into the pool bar which is supposed to be lovely.. sadly we are scuppered and just barely are allowed in to have a look round, so with no chance of a cocktail we pick up a couple more of our party and head to Mud Bug.... Somewhere that does let you in thankfully.
Now in Bazil you go to a bar or club, they give you a card, charge entry and then all your drinks are put on that card you then lay when you leave, sometimes the cover charge is reduced based on how much you drink, sometimes you get credit against a drink and so on. Interesting concept, the only problem I find with that is no one tells you how much anything costs, and before you know it you could easily rack up a pretty hefty bill (in south American terms that is!), if they did this in London I'd probably be bankrupt!!! If you loose the card you pay a fine, and you can't get out without having paid as the bouncers wont let you... Again, interesting that in London the challenge is more getting in than out.
Anyway, needless to say much fun was had Mud Bug is interesting as it plays music and is a cool bar, no one dances and it has sport on... It calls itself a sport bar, but I think in LP and other places it's seen as something more... It's a fun place to drink, and tonight is busy. But soon the need to throw some shapes means we are heading to Melt in Leblon.
Again clubs are not really what you expect, it's live music here and a mixture of styles definitely not Ibiza!! But it's fun, the band play really well and we are meeting people and strutting around the dancefloor having fun! The highlight was a samba style version of Michael Jackson... Just brilliant! Coming to leave and the old card payment, this is where things can easily go wrong Jamie was stung when she gave her card and money together, the guy then gave her the bill and insisted that she pay, whereas she had already given the money.. There was no bargaining on this though, so she ended up paying again... So you do need to be a bit careful!
As always, I seem to meet people in IT no matter where I go... I must be a geek magnet. Anyway, whilst struggling to communicate with what little Portugese I know (basically hello, good morning and thank you...!) I meet 2 guys that speak almost perfect English, and you guessed it both in IT. One working for Dell (and yes I did tell him how useless their equipment is!!) the other for the Brazilian government... Ah well, let the geek talk begin!
All in all it was a really fun night, good times had by all!!
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