Rookies in Rio

After the long red eye to the other half of the globe, Lesley and I landed in Rio. With our spirits high we decided to jump in head first and take the city bus instead of a cab to our hostel in Copa Cabana. On the bus with our lack of Portuguese and the drivers lack of English, we did our best to request a stop at Copa Cabana. After a two and half hour bus ride (which I'm pretty sure only took us about 5 miles) our bus driver told us to hop off. We did, walking straight into a downpour. After rummaging our rain jackets from within the depths of our bags, we found out from another girl who looked as lost as we did that we were not in Copa Cabana, but had been dropped off on the wrong side of town. Good start. Standing there in the rain with our huge packs, we waited for another bus to pull up going our direction. We had more luck with this one, getting off at the right stop, only to wander the streets of Copa Cabana (still raining) to look for our hostel (void of any signage). After arriving and dropping our bags, we still had an hour to kill before our room was ready. Famished, we walked a few blocks and sat down at a local cafe. Doing the best she could to translate from Portugese to Spanish to English, Lesley ordered us some steak and potatoes. We were brought a delicious looking plate and felt very pleased with ourselves, until we took the first bite. We had actually ordered liver... We both began laughing at how absurd our first day had been, and all the mistakes we'd made along the way. But we both loved the adventure and couldn't have been happier with our first day abroad. It was the perfect way to start our trip.

Until next time, Ciao ciao (as they say here)