Everyone we have spoken to about Rio and everything we read about the place suggests that you are unlikely to come out of it alive – or at least with your belongings still in your possession, so we were a little nervous arriving in Ipanema at 1.30 in the morning. The outside of our hostel didn´t do much to allay our concern – there was nothing outside to indicate what it was – just a high wall and a metal gate with a grille and buzzer phone, and on the other side a burly Brazilian security guard. Once inside though (and the taxi driver kindly waited to make sure we got inside safely) the hostel was pretty nice. You did have to have id cards to get in and out though and the gate was permanently locked ´for your own safety´.
We did finally pluck up the courage to venture out the next morning only to feel inadequate amongst the skimpily glad beautiful people on Ipanema beach – so the next day we hopped on a bus out to Buzios, a couple of hours along the coast to relax for a few days. We´re off back to Rio before we fly home for a few days to ´see it´ properly.
Buzios is much more relaxed – with the exception of the ´moke/buggy´we hired to drive around in today – I´ve never seen bob less confident in a vehicle as he struggled to put it into gear as massive buses thundered past us at break neck speeds. I have to say it was absolutely terrifying.
Mokes aside, the place is absolutely beautiful – blue sea, white sand, picturesque bays – real picture-postcard stuff. We haven´t done a great deal here – taking the opportunity to just relax on the beach for a few days after all the constant travel we´ve done over the last couple of months. We also took the opportunity to get some laundry done while we were here, at a launderette near our hostel. We took the clothes concealed in a bag as we´d been carrying them around in plastic bags in the heat for the last couple of weeks and although mine of course still smelt quite fragrant, Bob´s possibly didn´t. Unfortunately the man in the launderette felt the need to empty the bag onto the (very public) counter and proceed to sort through each item individually - shorts, t-shirts, underwear – he held each festering item up, and then weighed it. As if that wasn´t excruciating enough – directly behind us in the queue was the prim little Kiwi girl we´d been chatting to politely over breakfast. She graciously pretended not to notice the pair of Bob´s pants being held up in front of her but in reality I think she´s been scarred for life...
After five nights in our hostel, we´re treating ourselves to a couple of nights in a nice hotel here overlooking the beach (at least I think we are, the vast majority of people here don´t speak English and as we have no Portugeuse we could have signed up for anything) before we head back to see the sights of Rio and then back home on 16 March.
