We were up and checking our bags in at 6 to board our onward flight at 7 which was very short at only 50 minutes and before long we could see the city of Rio De Janeiro stretching out below us. We landed at just after 8 and after the usual drama of baggage collection and trying to find out how to get to the place we are staying we managed to get on a bus with our bags, only to find you have to go through a kind of turnstile thingy and our bags wouldnt fit through so we had to get off and get on at the middle doors instead! We were on our way and it was raining :( We had to wait for ages for our second bus after trying different spots in which to hail one from and got rather damp before finally we made our way up the street to the house. We had booked a place through Airbnb using a $50 discount we had, therefore making it $12 a night instead of $22 and arrived to the warm welcome of Ana who doesn't speak any English, but we seem to just about understand each other with me speaking Spanish and her Portuguese. We have a lovely room to ourselves and the use of her whole house, including rooftop swimming pool if we like!! After settling in we were treated to some delicious coffee and bread and jam which was very welcome as breakfast on board the plane wasnt exactly satisfying and was by now several hours ago too. It was about 2pm by the time we left the house to catch the nearest metro (1km) to the centre, passing the football stadium they are re-vamping for the world cup and emerging on a rather plush, new looking platform.. After taking a few photos, although because of the cloud not being able to see Sugarloaf mountain or The Christ Statue, we walked along the streets to the bus station where we were able to purchase our tickets to Foz de Iguazu for Friday at a much more reasonable price than we were expecting, only $60 each instead of $100!! Business dealt with we now had some time to explore and what better to go see than the Sambadrome!! It is a vast, ugly, concrete set of bleachers and a little disappointing to what we were expecting, but you could imagine that when it was full of people and with the dancers from the carnival filling the road inbetween that it would be quite a spectacle. It is also used as the start/finish line for the Brazillian Grand Prix as well as various other events so quite a useful thing to have in the city really. Next we walked around for a while, looking at various buildings and taking the place in, before coming across a small supermarket where we bought some bits for dinner, including sausages which we were really looking forward to. We also treated ourselves to a bottle of cachasa with which to make Caipirinhas, Brazil's national drink which we'd previously sampled! Making our way back we got on the metro which was ridiculously packed as it was rush hour. Neither me nor Andy can ever remember the tube in London being this full and we literally had to fight our way out at our stop, shoving people out of the way just to get off the train!! Walking back to the house from the metro station was not nice, it was only 5.45 but already dark and we felt very vulnerable and self conscious walking along the nearly deserted streets and when we finally made it back, vowed to get a taxi next time or make sure we arrived in daylight! The rest of the evening was spent in making and eating dinner...rice with sausages...nom, looking on the internet, watching films and drinking caipirinhas...NOM...which Andy is fast becoming an expert at making!