Rio de Janeiro… Take 2

On our second trip back to Rio we decided to get off the beach and see a little more of what Brazil has to offer. We stayed in Lapa, known for it’s famous friday night street parties.

We stayed at Books hostel which was technically “Santa Teresa” however right across the road was Lapa. From here we could get buses super easily everywhere. Books was a really fun hostel with 2 for 1 caipirinhas every night from 730 and beer pong on Fridays.

We arrived on Thursday after a 4 hour bus from Arraial, grabbed dinner and went to bed. Nothing thrilling by any means.

Friday we awoke to a B E A utiful day. We decided to catch the bus to Copacabana as we hadn’t been there yet and apparently you can’t go to Rio without visiting it just once…. Well it was alright but personally I preferred Ipanema over Copa and all the beaches north over those 2 by a long way. 

That night we headed to Sugarloaf to catch the sunset.

It was amazing! Well the sunset wasn’t as there were a couple of cheeky clouds covering the horizon but seeing the city at night all lit up was incredible!

That night we headed back to our hostel for drinks before going to the Lapa street party at 1230ish.
The party was underneath the Lapa arches and was full of locals, tourists and garage parties. After a shot of “tequila” (more likely vodka and cachca) off a street vendor Rach decided it was time to go home, I happily complied and went with her. We were home around 2… Rach and Sammy both fell asleep on the floor of our hostel room that night, at separate times. I think that sums up the extent of our night.

The next day everyone was feeling a little dusty, so our big activity was heading to the Lapa Steps. Which were beautiful! We took all the standard tourist photos and headed back to the hostel for an afternoon nap.

The next 2 days consisted of wandering the streets of Lapa, the local fruit and veg market and of course many meals with rice and beans.

On the last night we went to a local Samba club with some people from our hostel. Sean wandered into the hostel around 6am and was miraculously ready to leave by 9 for a 6 hour journey to Ilha Grande.

I cannot wait to be back near the beach.

More photos to come, the internet f*#@ing stinks here.