After almost 20 hours of travelling the plane finally lands in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil at 10pm on the 10/11/09. But for some reason they won't let us off the plane straigh away.. Reason: Blackout at the airport. Once finally off the plane (still in a blackout) i had the great time of going through customs and all off the other fun tasks involved in getting out of the airport, including searching for my bag, all in the dark. You would think that an international airport would have back up generators of somesort!! so once out of the airport i am expecting someone from the hostel to be there to pick me up and take me to the hostel. NEWSFLASH: no one is there!!!!!!!!!! so i find a driver for another hostel that speaks english to drive me to my hostel and have to pay him 50 reals...by 2am i finally get to the hostel and am assured that i will be refunded the money when i check out.. oh but wait the fun doesnt end there!!! the hostel where i was staying at had 6 levels and my bed was on the 5th level so they have a lift that you can use when you have big bags with you. so me and the hostel guy get in the lift (by this time the electricity was back)to go up and guess what happens... THE LIFT GETS STUCK !!! FUN FUN!!! luckly we were only in there for about 10 minutes but with the heat and humidity and the tiny size of the lift it may as well been a sauna!!!
Oh i later found out that the blackout affected the whole of Brasil, Paraguay and some of Argentina. the cause was a problem at the hydroelectric station in paraguay that supplies all of the power!!!
The following few days pretty much involved Copacobana beach and hanging out with people from the hostel. Until friday the 13th when i decided to go on an organised tour to all of the major sites of rio including the chrtist statue and the sugar loaf mountain... only i didnt make it to the end as at the second last stop i manages to sprain my anckle and had to be taken to hospital for xrays to see if it was broken or anything!! because it was really swallen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lucky for me the girl that was running the tour took me to the general hospital which was free. There i got xrays and i saw a doctor who said that i would have to get a cast!!!! i really was not happy at that. on the third day on my trip i am already in hospital and have to get a f@#$ing cast on my leg!!! the worst thing is that the cast didnt go just above my ankle but it went all the way up to my knee!!! that really made things hell!! with hot sticky weather it got really sweaty and itchy within a few hours. the doctor suggested that i keep the cast on for 7 days but i only lasted 2!!! after that i took the cast off and just bandaged it really well.
To end my lovely experience in Rio when check out time came the stupit hostel didnt refund me for the cost of the taxi from the airport!!! Bastards!!!! anyways next stop Ilha Grande!!
