Rio de Janeiro
Backpacking Eight Months On the Road
Bus Through South America
By David Rice  
Rio de Janeiro
Page Eighteen
Rio de Janeiro
Backpacking by Bus In South America
Eight Months On the Road
By David Rice  
Rio Vibes
www.softseattravel.com
Page 10

Coming into Rio was quite impressive as the bus came over a huge
bridge above the commercial port and I could see the cruise ships and
the busy harbor; I love to look at boats of any kind.

The bus station was in a run-down part of the city but luckily I came in
during the daytime.  I left the bus and checked out the local buses
looking for the bus to the Copacabana Beach. I caught what I thought
was the bus but only reached within a few blocks of the beach to an area
of hotels. With luck it was near the hostel where I had planned to stay.

I walked a few blocks to my intended lodgings in Rio, I went in the lobby,
but quickly a chill came over me. The help was harried and indifferent,
giving me and other clients no time. The place just didn't feel right to me.
I depend on a friendly staff in the hostel for up-to-date local information
but when a hostel gets huge or the staff gets over worked, they get surly
they just aren't friendly or helpful. When the place doesn't feel right to
me I move on.

Disappointed that the hostel had such a bad vibe, I went around the
corner and found a great hostel with everything I needed including a
location just four blocks from Copacabana Beach. For eight dollars a
night I had the whole dorm to myself for nine days: five beds to a dorm
but no one else was there.
Bad feeling about the first hostel centered on the busy crew, too busy
for me or the client that was ahead of me in line. The place was clean
but it just didn't feel right.
The girl at the desk was chatting away and ignoring customers and the
dining room was like a NY City cafeteria, a sterile looking place without
personality. That first impression hit me hard. I felt they would be just too
busy to bother with clients.
There are at least ten hostels in Rio and as it turned out, the place
around corner, run by a German lady for a local owner, was ideal. She
gave me all the local info I needed and couldn't have been more helpful.

I stashed my pack and headed for Copacabana Beach, a place that I
have heard about all my life.
Pretty girls in bikinis and thongs, dark skinned beauties prancing on the
beach, a few topless; Copacabana just the way I had always imagined it.