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

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.
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