As the first morning blazes away here in Rio, I’m trying to sort out “yesterday” in my memory. It was a 36 something hour day with all the time zone jumping so we landed in Chile about the same time we left home in Auckland, and arrived in Rio about an hour after we left Auckland.

Somehow yesterday we were ready 7 hours before the flight, but leaving for the airport was a rush of organisation and last minute checks some hours later. After some shenanigans with the boarding pass printing and the efficient security checks (not being sarcastic, they were pretty quick and so easy) we could finally relax before the flight. In hindsight we should have done a lot more standing and walking instead of sitting.

It was a long long flight, and with an aisle seat filled we didn’t get much of a chance to walk around. Definitely going premium economy next time, the seats weren’t that comfortable and my arse cheeks are so sore still. Pretty smooth going over the Pacific, a few bumps along the way but nothing to cause us to fly about the cabin.

Coming into Santiago we got a view of the Andes going past, it was a bit unnerving seeing them so close, and the weather was really misty so I’m glad we managed to miss them. This was a bastard long airport and we walked for huge distances to the check-in bit for the next flight. And of course the gate we were leaving from was pretty close to the one we had arrived on so we had to walk all the way back again. Lots of chances for them to flog the overpriced “duty free” goods.

Rio airport is even bigger, and very shiny floors. Apparently it’s had a major upgrade since Louie was last here. Again, loads of distance to travel but most of it was on travellators so definitely happy. And plenty of opportunities to pretend we are walking at bionic speeds. It was a long day and we were a bit crazy.

The process of getting in was extremely efficient. We scanned our bits and talked to a man who decided we weren’t a risk to the country… well Louie did, I just smiled politely and practiced “nao falo Portuguese” in my head. The customs section was looser than even the NZ to Australia setup. We walked into the “nothing to declare” doorway and the Brazilian government, deciding that was good enough, didn’t bother to check anything and we were into Rio. As a great introduction and man in a taxi shirt asked if we wanted a taxi, then ushered us towards a guy who then proceeded to try to sell us SIM cards from a stack in his pocket. Louie did his best to get him to bugger off as we walked away but he persisted following us, showing prices on his phone. A a loud “NO” and a dirty look stopped him in his tracks finally, so I didn’t have to bring out the “look, fuck off, and fuck off now ya fuckin idiot”.

After a lot of dicking about trying to get the free airport Wifi going to order an Uber we realised we didn’t know where the pick up zone was, then got a good stretch of the legs gapping it to the Laranje zone.

Our driver Arthur was awesome, got us to through the crazy maze of streets and motorways to the hotel, and then realised it wasn’t the hotel we wanted. Apparently there’s an Atlantico Copacabana and an Atlantis Copacabana. A cheeky $30 real trip later we were where we were supposed to be. If ever you’re in Rio, Arthur’s your man. I kind of feel bad that I only tipped him the max amount of $5, which is $1.46 in NZD.

The view from our hotel, insanely humid but the neighbourhood is good and no running gun battles.

After we checked in, checked which way the water goes down the toilet (straight down as it turns out) we went for a walk and some dinner. It may come as a shock to some but heading out at 11:30pm we easily found a place still serving food. Rio is very good at being open late. Not so much on a Sunday, but we didn’t discover this until the next day.

The place was called the Social Club and we completely ruined the youth and hip vibe it was going for. We did have a young English guy next to us who we started talking with and sharing stories of Rio and other travels. Due to his fairly far-fetched stories, we later decided he was from old money and could just tit about the world or he was a serial killer hiding under a range of different aliases. Luckily he disappeared when we got up to leave.

Looks like Rugby is popular here, with their current Ruck n Rio cans. They also knew this can was for me – just call me Coke Stud. Actually don’t, I don’t want a run-in with customs on my way back. Snapping of rubber gloves and demands to tell them where I’ve hidden the coke.

This is Frango Picadinho, chicken with some other stuff. A pretty unusual mix of poached egg, kale, garlic rice, a grainy thing and fried banana. A traditional Brazilian dish, not sure if it being reheated in the microwave was traditional. This is $48 reals, or $14 NZ. Food is so cheap here!

I finally got to try Caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail that is dangerously easy to drink. Luckily for me, it tasted like Tequila so it wasn’t very easy to drink and I didn’t feel very dangerous.

After spending some 22 hours either in a plane or in an airport that first ice cold Corona (they didn’t have anything closer to a native beer) tastes so absolutely amazing, followed up by some hard booze.

A successful journey, and a great start to the trip, and a patch start to the blog.