Back to Rio
Topic: Brazil
The bus back to Rio took more than 4 hours as it turned into a local bus for most of the way. It stopped at every little two-coconut-tree village to let people on and off.

Rio bus station was stiflingly hot and we couldn't leave until we had sorted out our onward bus journey to Salvador de Bahia in the north east. We joined a sweaty queue for an hour but found that there were no buses leaving that night, or the next two nights. We tried another company and bought a semi-cama executive ticket for the following afternoon. It would take 28 hours - the longest bus trip we have done so far.

The next job was to find somewhere to stay in Rio for the night. We rang up a few places that were either full or madly expensive so we put ourselves at the mercy of the tourist office. They found us something in Copacabana for about 65 dollars which was the cheapest they could find and the most we have spent on a room the entire time we have been travelling. When we heard it had a pool and air conditioning we cheered up. We had been sweating on the bus and in the bus station for hours by now. the Atlantic Copacabana had both those things but was still crummy. We had to pay in cash in advance. I reached into the money belt I was wearing under my clothes and pulled out some warm, damp dollar notes and handed them over (yuck!).

The room was by far the worst we have stayed in. It was just big enough for the bed. The tiny window overlooked the air conditioning unit of the room opposite and our air con unit chugged and rattled like an old train. There was also the smell of drains. The darkness, heat, size and smell made the place really claustrophobic. I have no idea how we managed to sleep. Imagine coming on a package holiday to Brazil and being stuck there for 2 weeks - at least we could escape!