Last day in Brazil

So my time in Rio is coming to a close.

Yesterday I went to a souvenir market and got some good deals on a shirt, decorative towel type thing, and a hat.  Afterwards I was at a costume ball, and it was really amazing to see all of the costumes and people dancing from all over the world.  I got there around 11:30 at night but didn´t leave until 6 AM.  The party was still going strong then.

Today I woke up with the hopes that the 4th time (yes, 4th time) would be the charm with hang gliding.  After waiting an hour past the time they were supposed to show up (again), I spoke with the hostel owner.  They said they would maybe be there in an hour and a half, but I told him I was just too frustrated and not willing to wait around again.  So my next trip to Rio will have to include hang gliding.

Today has been a lazy day of sleeping, packing, and saying goodbye to new friends.  It´s so cool meeting other people that are traveling from all over the world, and it really makes you realize how we are all one people.  Facebook has made it much easier to stay in contact, and hopefully these are people that I will be able to visit and that will be able to visit me.

I can say that I am not going to miss the heat (today I was lying in bed and realized it was a cool day.  It was 92 degrees) nor the disorganization that seems to be a part of Brazil´s culture.  A good example of this is that they used too much water during Carneval yesterday, so the city decided to shut down all water for the Centro region of Rio for the next 48 hours.  This means that I do not get to shower before I leave for my flight tomorrow morning, but I have been through worse.  Despite those downsides, I found people that were willing to help me when I was unsure of where to go and Brazilians that treated me with great hospitality during my stay here.  They have a sense of fun and being happy, even if they have much less that us Americans have.  I will look forward to coming back here when the opportunity arises.

Getting ready for Brazilian taxis and Hang-gliding and my hostel in Chile

My last posts have been very text heavy, so I'm trying to add in some pictures and links for this post. Unfortunately adding in pics from the web isn't working with me right now, so you'll just have to see the pics at the links I provide.

After realizing that I only booked my hostel in Rio until the morning of February 17th and that I am leaving for Santiago on the 18th, I was luckily able to go online and just book a room at the same hostel for an additional night.

I then realized that I don't have any arranged transportation from the airport to the hostel. I did some online research about this.

The first site I came to was this one: http://www.rioairporttransfer.com/

It looks like a nice site and great service, but they wanted 94 bucks for a round trip taxi. It seemed a bit expensive, so I dug a bit further and came across this site:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/South_America/Brazil/Estado_do_Rio_de_Janeiro/Rio_de_Janeiro-1504237/Transportation-Rio_de_Janeiro-Get_a_Taxi-BR-1.html

This has traveler suggestions and posts about their experiences. From this I was able to figure out that I should pay somewhere between 40 and 80 reales (about 22 and 45 dollars) for a taxi. I also found out that apparently red lights are ignored at night, not only by taxi drivers but also by the police. Sounds like an adventure.

After all that I was able to book a taxi to pick me up from the airport through my hostel. The hostel has a good reputation, and it will cost me 65 reales. This sounds more reasonable, and hopefully I will be able to get the same rate on my taxi ride back to the aiport.

After reading about it in my travel guide, I looked up a website about hang gliding in Rio.

So this will be me in a few weeks: www.justfly.com/br

I am a true adventure seeker, and this will be an awesome experience.

Last but not least, I found out where I will be spending my first month in Santiago! I will be staying at the Hostal Providencia. The accomodations seem very nice for a hostel, and their website is very impressive:

http://www.hostalprovidencia.com/

The last details of my trip include adding my brother to my bank account, getting Brazilan reales and Chilean pesos, cancelling my car insurance and cell phone, and oh yeah, packing.

Countdown to departure: 15 days