Rio....

And so after a pretty bumpy 13hrs on a bus trying and failing to sleep I finally make it to Rio, as we arrive at the bus station in the north of the city I can see my first glimpse of carnival floats... Yippee. The city itself on arrival doesn't look great, very run down but this is the poorer side of town apparently. We pick up our things and wait for the mini bus with guys hanging around waiting to carry your bags to get money, it's a struggle to stop them and say no!
All ready, next stop Copacabana..... We arrive at the hotel, check in and sort out our bags then head to a cafe for some breakfast. After we are fed its a free afternoon to do with as we please. Thomas kindly offers a bit of orientation and helps me get laundry sorted out, and takes a few of us down to the beach and along the front and then on to the Haviana shop which to be honest is a must!!!
I have never seen so many Haviana in my life, and you can MYO.. (make you own), you can even pimp your flip flops with some bling... Haha, so much choice I have no idea what to pick so think I will come back to this later on!
Next stop is taking a look at where my hostel is, so Thomas walks me down there so I can check it out. Have to say it looks ok, and am looking forward to getting there and having my own space for a while and being in one place for a week and not constantly repacking!!
The group head out to dinner all you can eat pizza and kilo dinner, e.g. you pay by weight, it's ok but the pizza is just bread and cheese... No tomato! Then the real surprise is the desert pizza, with chocolate or banana, with ice cream. Interesting and quite nice!

Tomorrow is the final day of the tour and farewell to Thomas...

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