Jan 12

We woke early to find breakfast was delayed due to the non arrival of bread at the hostel. ByY the time we had packed our stuff up we caught a 10am boat out to go to Praia Lopes Mendes, docking at Pousso Mangues Beach first. We walked the 30mins to Lopes Mendes and had a refreshing swim at one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. Our relaxation was slightly inhibited when a group of loud speaking Brazilians sat right next to us - out of the entire beach! So after some sunbaking we walked back to Pousso Mangues beach and had our first wrong meal order.
So thinking that calabresa would be something similar to calabaza (pumpkin in spanish) we ordered a plate..only to be creeped out by the plate of grilled oily sausage and onion concoction slapped in front of us. Nadine piked and decided that maybe a chicken empanada would be a better idea. We then decided to swim in the calm bay and we floated out to where beautiful boats were moored, after swimming around various boats we headed back to shore. The sun was in full force and Nadine managed to burn her butt, with Riki smartly staying in the shade. At 330pm we jumped on a boat going back to Abraao and ran up to our hostel for a speed shower and a fast hike down to the ferry ticket line. After we realised there was a line to board we bought out tickets and sat and chilled out with an icecream until practically everyone was on board except us. We then leisurely boarded, securing a position near the exit. Two uncomfortable hours later of sitting on our packs, we finally arrived in Mangaratiba and claustrophobically fought our way OFF the ferry. There is no courtesy involved, it was hilarious because people would try and push past us, and we were thinking, what dorks, do they not realise we have 15kgs extra strapped to our back that will hurt if they try anything! Guess not..
We then ran to make certain we could get on a bus to Rio, and after arriving first there was a mixup, with one guy pointing to Nadine certain seats were ours, yet 3 mins later realising they had overbooked. They tried to pawn us off onto another bus, then decided to cancel that one, and Riki threw a hissy fit which succeeded. Except she ended up sitting on a small plastic stool in the aisle. Consequently she slid around corners and the relief on her face when someone got out of the bus and she claimed a chair was priceless. We got dropped at the door of Alex's flat where we quickly got changed and met Gigi and Tomas. We then all drove out to Pao do Acucar and caught the cable car up where we went to Nando Reis (kind of like a Brazilian Ben Harper) concert on the hill. Very cool indeed. It started raining but we enjoyed our passionfruit caipirinhas under cover in the concert hall. We found a photo stall and got into bizarre costumes and took some crazy photos. Riki and I got hungry and enjoyed a Caroline cheeseburger and eventually we managed to get throught the rain safely and down the cable car again and back to Alex's apartment to sleep.