Feb 13

We wake nice and early at 8am and tip-toe out of the Favela in fear of waking the 22 other people in there. Finally the SunGods have had mercy on us, the sun was shining bright and clear, and we spent the early hours walking the streets and having juice and açai before heading back to the hostel with our jandal purchase, and failing again on the attempt to withdraw cash. This time the bank was HSBC and the machine neither worked for Nadine or an American tourist behind her. Frustrated with the Visa Lies we headed back to our hostel to get our beach stuff and head to Copacabana to enjoy the fine golden sands.
Laying down our sarongs we passed the time well rotating like Rotisserie chickens on the barby. All this time we have vendors passing us by yelling, skol! (local beer) agua(water)! coca-cola!
By the time we actually want a drink, none are nearby and the ones we call over don't have agua com gas (bubbly water). Oh the Irony.
Eventually an enterprising fellow runs somewhere and gets us some, and salty cashews and watermelon are washed down happily later with cold coco gelado.
Various men freak us out, one being a fellow in a leather swimsuit. And then we try and find ourselves an ATM that works. We spend the next 1/2 hour on the hunt and finally get to one that gives us money. Joy of joys!! As a reward to our missioning around we find ourselves a juice bar and decide on a Team Challenge to try the fruits that we haven't tried yet. And to be honest we were impressed about what we had tried- there were only a few options on the board left. So cupuaçu (Amazonian Fruit) and milk was bought (really creamy almost vanilla icecream like), fruta de conde (also known as pina) which was kind of lychee like, and a coco-grape combo. The thing is I'm trying to describe them, but they are a fruit in its own so I can´t!
So after we juiced we found ourselves the cheapest, most impressive, most efficient pedicure and manicure in the history of the world. For a mere R8 we had our feet scrubbed and toenails painted. Although our pedicurists were unhappy to be there we enjoyed the hairsprayed atmosphere. We made it back to the hostel in time for happy hour drinks, but not without stopping at the local tapioca cart. Tapioca as you may all know it as is very different as what we know it as. It was created into a kind of pancake with fillings ranging from cheese and guava, coconut and condensed milk, coconut and sausage (we didn`t venture into that one) etc etc etc. A burn and tan line inspection and investigation later, plus showers and a few caipirinhas at the bar later we were ready to pack for Riki`s departure back to Argentina, followed by a last supper with Gigi and Alex at 9pm. Gigi picked us up and we met them at a restaurant where we had steak, and caipirinhas and creamy cheesy rice. We were so stuffed we got dropped off at the hostel and promptly fell into bed and slept like babies.