Rio

The Iguazu falls were spectacular and I'll miss the hostel there. The last night at the hostel was just so relaxing, we cooked dinner, hotdogs avec la peppers, and over some bottles of cheap Argentine wine met a lot of great travelers. My favorite being the Irish couple that smoked like chimneys, rank like fish and missed their mammy's cooking :)

The 24 hour bus ride to Rio was not all that bad, although I wish the bus had been as deluxe as the Argentine bus. This bus still had more space than an American bus, but not the utter luxury of the Via Bariloche bus that we took in Argentina. At the end of the ride we craved showers, and I nearly cried when I saw the laundry machine in our apartment. Clive had managed to find the place earlier and had met with the owner, who is an *extremely* easy going guy. In fact the first tips that he had for Clive when he arrived were that the gay clubs were over there, and if that wasn't his thing then the prostitutes were over there :) We've also picked up a fourth as the girl Paula that we met in Buenos Aires has flown in to stay with us for a few days.

After we all arrived last night we went out to the Copacabana beach (two blocks from our apartment), to try and meet some Australian guys we had bumped into earlier. We had been warned to not walk on the beach, but I think the area where we were was extremely safe because there were plenty of tourists and locals at the little drinking 'huts' on the beach. Apart from some low grade hassle from people trying to sell you things it seemed very safe. We spent an enjoyable breezy night talking, drinking and watching the surf on the beach.

Today we have to figure out tickets to Salvador, hopefully the Sambodromo for Carnival too, and then perhaps do some sightseeing.