Rio Newbies - 11 August 2011

After an 11 hour plane journey we finally made it to Rio, absolutely shattered. Our first introduction to Rio was on a local bus, and was the most terrifying white knuckle ride I´d ever experienced. Weaving in and out of traffic and screeching around corners, I actually thought I was going to die before even starting the 10 months. Anita found it hilarious for some reason. We struggled to figure out the correct stop to get off on the only map we possessed, whilst simultaneously rattling around inside this bus like nuts in a maraca attempting to put on our rucksacks. We disembarked in the middle of a traffic island at 12am in the heart of the city and the first thing I realised was I had managed to leave the map on the bus, which by this point was a mere dot on the horizon. Our immediate reaction was to just burst into fits of ironic laughter, sods law is transatlantic. All our worldy possessions in tow we set off in search of our first three nights accomodation, Books Hostel in Lapa. After wandering the streets and attempting to mask our fresh-off-the-boat look with a sense of purpose, we hailed one of the city´s hundred of yellow taxis. I showed the taxi driver the map and quickly realised charades would fare far better than an Portugese I knew; I pointed to the address I had written down before leaving the UK. The taxi driver squinted for all he was worth and held the paper so far away from him it was actually outside the window of the car. Nerves started to kick in. After a bit of dab handed negotation we agreed 10 Brazilian Reais to go what turn out to be two blocks drive away and was not a bargain at all, unsurprisingly the taxi driver managed to crash into a concrete bollard like a dodgems car in that time, scaring us witless. Anita handed him the 10 Reais and in our fluster of disorganisation he handed us back 5 reais saying it was the wrong amount. Anita handed him another 10 Reais. Our first experience of being ripped off and it had been less than an hour in the country. It was straight to sleep in our 14 bed dorm.