Beach and the 28 hour bus ride......

So last day in Rio, we headed to the beach not just any beach, but Copacobana beach. Now you'll have to excuse the lack of photos of the wonderful white sand and the many fine ladies that were on the beach as I forgot my camera. But you can Google for some nice ones and imagine me there amount the people I'm sure. The waves were quite good and we ended up getting wiped out as we got caught in two waves at the same time andi ended up doing a handstand In the shallows as I tried vainly to right myself. As we were leaving I decided that I would head out to the beach gym that I had heard off between copacobana and ipenenama beach. I only know this from googling but it was a 5km beach walk there and back. Needless to say my legs were killing me just after that torment. Let alone a beach gym workout :) after which i headed back to arrange the next part of the trip, having been recommended a hostel called galleria 13. So I expect great things.

So now to book the bus to Salvador in the morning, one catch, you need Brazilian ID to book a bus online, even on the foreigner tab. So I have to be at the bus station in the morning before the bus leaves at 915 and get a space of which only 2 remain. Luckily there is another company, also have to buy at the station but this one leaves at 11 but takes 28 hours, decided on the latter. The bus its self was not uncomfortable, but due to a lack of any timekeeping in Brazil the trip took a total of 33 hours so now a full 39 hours later I'm safely in the hostel.

Carnival and aftermath

So I didn't know this but there is a special building in Rio for the carnival called the sambadrome, think of stadium seating but for a runway. Its not far from our hostels in lapa so we walked there seeing all sorts of costumes and samba bands out in the street. As we got closer we could hear the first samba school starting off as a mass of fireworks went up into the sky. We had to work our way around the sambadrome as our section was the opposite side, but this gave ample time to see the schools getting ready for their part in the show. It was extremely busy but there didn't feel to be any massive rush on anyone's part. Once we got to the seating we realised there was no seating just a concrete bench to stand on. The first school was still going on when we arrived. They each had a theme and a name but my programme got destroyed by the throngs of people so I can't remember any of them. I took lots of pictures to make up for it. I cannot explain how detailed the costumes were, the saying a picture is worth a thousand words to is very fitting here. I have added a few pictures below. We left at 330 but it was only half way through at this point. One bit to note is that one of the floats lost his head on the way through, there is a concrete over hang for the cameras and the the float hit it and the statue lost his head...whoops.

So obviously I did not get up early the day after, but myself and Elena heading up to tijuca national park with a few people from her hostel. We taxied to the top of one of the hills in the park and walked down, on the way I got to see a marmoset, some of the more adventurous spotted a path into the park next to a waterfall, the path was mostly a climb, over rocks and tree roots, I took a single picture and ran out of battery.  Ended up walking back most of the way to the hostel because of the throngs on people heading to the carnival and the road closures. So a lazy day is called for today.