I caught a bus in Rio and didn´t make a complete idiot of myself. That´s one up for me. Get in.
We stayed in last night. Probably a wise move as I´ve been out so many times in a row. Needed a quiet one. Had a couple of drinks and Mark (UK) prepared a culinary masterpiece for the starving masses to feast on. Result. I also managed to make use of the kind gift from Michael at work of iTunes vouchers. Enjoyed listening to van Morrison - And it stoned me... love that song. Thanks Michael.
Today, I got up at a sprightly 10.00am.... delighted with that one.
Jay (UK), Mark (UK)and I decided to go and rent some bikes to ride to Lago Rodriguez de Freitas. We finally got ourselves organised at about 11.30ish and went out to check out the prices. First place we got to wanted a credit card as security and Rio being obviously a very safe place with no corruption or crime whatsoever, we decided to seek rentals elsewhere. Essentially, none of us wanted to risk our plastic discovering it has a twin in Rio after we leave....
We headed down to Copacabana Beach to find an alternative option and met this really nice man dressed in a black suit a´la Miami Vice with lots of bling jewellery everywhere. He informed us that he knew of a bike shop and if we would follow him to a dark alley somewhere, he and his friends would help us rent bikes out of the kindness of their hearts. We said "Ok great, thanks kind man... perhaps you can look after our cameras and money while we go on our ride...". Actually, we waited for him to turn around and scarpered..... quick sharp.
We eventually found a place that rented us bikes for R20 for 3 hours. About 6 pounds. It was great to do a bit of exercise and the ride to the lake took about 30mins or so.
We headed to the Botanical Gardens and had some lunch. After looking at various species of plants and flowers we realised we had to get the bikes back to the shops.
Weaving in and out of traffic in Rio de Janeiro was probably not the cleverest thing i´ve done on this trip but it was certainly an experience.
Fortunately we didn´t meet our black suited blinged up friend Carlos again as we strolled along Copacabana back to our hostel. Had a Caipirinha overlooking the beach and i´ve spent the last couple of hours uploading photos.
Out tonight to a bar/club in Copacabana where the guys stay downstairs and the girls upstairs until midnight. The girls get free drinks and the club opens up at midnight for mingling. Could be entertaining.... Will see.
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