It Begins: Rio In the Rain

So here we are and here I am. The journey which has been so long in the planning has finally moved from the theory box to actually doing it. The flight was a typical long haul flight: long, tiresome and despite getting regularly chastised by Maria Ortega - a feisty old air hostess who clearly wanted to ruin our trans-Atlantic plane party/pillow fight.

Rio, upon arrival, was hot, muggy and already dark and after being whisked to the Hostel by a man with a board, looking for Lianne Cahill. After checking in to the Mellow Yellow, a hostel that is touted as being a hedonistic backpacker haven, and certainly lived up to its name. From the offset.

My bags were barely in my locker, and my tired weary body was barely functioning, but this was no excuse whatsoever for not being in the bar hitting the cocktails. After slotting into a rather large group of travelers and taking on some drink which is apparently banned in quite a few countries I was temporarily rejuvenated and raring for a party. We were taken in a minibus to the Llappa Street Party, drinking various exciting rum-based beverages and eating indiscriminate meat from street vendors. It was absolutely chucking it down all night, which is nothing more than a slight inconvenience to the multitudes of Street Dancing Brazilians. By 4am I was done, and so was the evening,

Unsurprisingly I am now feeling pretty rubbish after 3 hours sleep, after about 24 hours of being awake... which is probably no excuse whatsoever for not being in the bar right now hitting the caipirinhas. I´m not too sure whether I have another night in me tonight, however we´ll see how this particular leaning manifests when I go up to the bar after finishing this

Mellow Yellow seems a pretty excellent place to party with some cool like-minded souls, who can top me up with enough knowledge to work out whether to go north or south next, so I´m thinking of hanging around for a few extra days.