Well, our first day of 13 months of travels is officially concluded!
After saying goodbye to our families last night, we arrived in Rio (via a brief stop in Sao Paulo) at 10am this morning. We got into a massive panic at the airport when we couldn't withdraw a penny of money from any of the 7 or 8 different ATMs we tried. Rio airport is not exactly the friendliesy or safest airport to be hanging around, and despite asking a number of officials, no-one could help us until two Swedish tourists appeared, so we pounced on them. They had happened to find the only ATM out of about 20 that was working, so we followed them and withdrew money as planned... relief! And then it struck us... we have arrived in South America!
We took perhaps what seemed the world's longest bus journey the full 12km
from the airport and arrived just after lunch. Going past the 'favelas' (the shanty towns of Rio) was completely eye opening. We plan to take a guided visit later on and experience the true Rio. We checked into our first hostel of our trip, the 'Lighthouse Hostel' in the pleasant, upmarket beachfront district of Ipanema, and set out to explore shortly afterwards. We had a great lunch (Bianca 'mobbed' the salad bar), and then took a lovely long leisurely stroll down Ipanema and Leblon beach. So, we have set the bar, I think! We did a litle planning in the afternoon and have some exciting trips booked for the rest of the week, before we head off to Iguazu Falls in the jungle on Monday.
After saying goodbye to our families last night, we arrived in Rio (via a brief stop in Sao Paulo) at 10am this morning. We got into a massive panic at the airport when we couldn't withdraw a penny of money from any of the 7 or 8 different ATMs we tried. Rio airport is not exactly the friendliesy or safest airport to be hanging around, and despite asking a number of officials, no-one could help us until two Swedish tourists appeared, so we pounced on them. They had happened to find the only ATM out of about 20 that was working, so we followed them and withdrew money as planned... relief! And then it struck us... we have arrived in South America!
We took perhaps what seemed the world's longest bus journey the full 12km
from the airport and arrived just after lunch. Going past the 'favelas' (the shanty towns of Rio) was completely eye opening. We plan to take a guided visit later on and experience the true Rio. We checked into our first hostel of our trip, the 'Lighthouse Hostel' in the pleasant, upmarket beachfront district of Ipanema, and set out to explore shortly afterwards. We had a great lunch (Bianca 'mobbed' the salad bar), and then took a lovely long leisurely stroll down Ipanema and Leblon beach. So, we have set the bar, I think! We did a litle planning in the afternoon and have some exciting trips booked for the rest of the week, before we head off to Iguazu Falls in the jungle on Monday. 
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