We woke up early this morning, quickly got ready and packed. We came downstairs and checked out before taking breakfast. We then got in a taxi and headed to the bus station. There wasn't much traffic and we ended up there an hour before the bus was due to leave.

We hung around in the terminal until the bus arrived and then boarded. The ride to Rio would take 6 hours and we quickly got underway. I listened to an audiobook while Shivani read and slept.

Half way through the bus stopped at the services for 30 mins and we had a some quick junkie snacks to keep us going. We then got back on the bus and continued on our way. As we got to the coast the scene got much greener and the rolling hills looked lush, even though it was cloudy and the weather wasn't so good.

We eventually arrived on the outskirts of Rio at rush hour. It took a while till we got to the terminal and we eventually arrived at six. We the grabbed our stuff and went to work out how to get to the hostel. There was a big line for taxis and there was a lot of traffic so we decided to hop on a local bus headed to Copacabana. From there we could get a taxi for a shorter and cheaper journey.

The bus headed for downtown and got stuck in traffic. We got to see some of the buildings before we eventually got out to the coast and we saw the beach and sea for the first time. They looked really nice, even though the sun wasn't shining, and were still relatively busy too. We drove past Sugar Loaf mountain and saw the statue of Christ too.

We then got into Copacabana and consulting the map on my phone, realised we were close to the hostel. The bus stopped pretty close by and with a few blocks walk we were there. We went to check in and found it was actually a hotel. The location was good and it didn't seem to bad.

Getting to the room we found it to be a bit dated and dirty but it would do the job. After dumping our things we went down to reception to book a city tour for the next day. After that was sorted we decided to head out. We walked to the main square a few blocks away and found a few restaurants and bars.

We then also caught a glimpse of the sea so went down to the waterfront and had a stroll. The sun had just set but the scene was still nice and the beach still lively. The atmosphere here was much better than Sao Paulo and I was sure we would enjoy it more.

Getting off the beach we found the streets of Ipanema to be lively with good bars and restaurants. There also seemed to be a lot of gay guys around too.

After our short walk we headed back to a restaurant we had seen on the square. We got a table and found ourselves next to a couple who had been staying at our hotel in Sao Paulo and we had breakfast with in the morning. What a small world!!

We then had our meal followed by the traditional icecream for Shivani. We then headed to get some cash to pay for our tour before heading back to the hotel. It was now 10.30pm and the tour was starting at 8.15am the next day so we decided to go to sleep. As we came in we saw a few groups of people leaving to go out. It seemed like it would be fun here but we would save that for another day.