Bom Dia Brazil!

I very nearly named this post "What Doesn't Kill Us, Only Makes Us Stronger... Part III" - but on reflection, that would have been a little too harsh. But not much! Indeed, I predicted that my journey to Rio from Cartagena would be quite a tough one, and I wasn't wrong, but it would have been much better had I been on top form, not recovering from you-know-what all day Saturday! Off I went on Sunday afternoon to find my one and only geocache. I really needed it to be there, so imagine my annoyance, after a 30 minute walk in the baking heat, I arrived at the port and my GPS pointed 100m inside the compound! I figured that I had better not go snooping around too much in such an area, so I just went straight up to the guard and tried to explain what I was try to do... in Spanish!

Anyway, I managed to get my point across, but it soon became clear that there was no way I would be allowed into the compound! What a stupid place to put a geocache, obviously left there by some idiot who had just got off a cruise ship and not thought it through properly! I was so drained by that point, that I ended up chatting to a local guy for a while, again in Spanish, who was absolutely stunned that I wasn't married with children. This is starting to wear a bit thin now, someone needs to explain to South Americans that it's just not that weird to be single, childless and homeless at 28 (in England anyway!) After a while, I knew that I had better make a start on the walk back to the hostel, but I was really feeling extremely weak at this point and very desperately found a store to buy some water. As I exited, a bus stopped behind me, and gratefully I jumped on.

I spent my last hour in Cartagena trying not to throw up, hoping that I hadn't now given myself heatstroke as well! Soon, it was time to jump into a taxi to the airport. Once there, I had to queue before I even got to check-in, for what I don't know, where I was given a stamp in my passport and told I would need to pay some taxes at the check-in desk. Drat, I was hoping that I'd already paid for them in my ticket! Anyway, so cut a really long story short, LAN told me that no, I hadn't paid the taxes and that I owed them $109. yes, you read that correctly, ONE HUNDRED AND NINE DOLLARS!!!!! I nearly died! I was expecting about half that and I didn have enough cash! They couldn't accept cards either, so the girl told me I would have to go to the ATM, then return, luckily straight to the desk (so at least I didn't have to queue again!)

I was so incredulous about it all, that I went to the LAN office to query it. It took nearly 2 hours to sort it all out, but I basically wanted them to explain why I had to pay so much, all the other airport taxes had been included in my ticket. I didn't really get any straight answers, but all I could think of was that when I changed my route, that Qantas hadn't included the new taxes. Fair enough, but then I wanted to know if they had refunded me the taxes that I had paid on the flights I didn't take. LAN couldn't tell me this, despite being part of the One World Alliance. I was fuming, but I kept my calm, and in fairness, the woman did her best to help me, eventually, and even let me check in first so that I wasn't late for the flight. In the end, I had to go to the ATM to pay for the departure tax, tourist tax AND some stamp tax - 62,000 pesos for a bloody bit of ink! I've seriously gone off Colombia quite a bit now, and it really needs tourists as well.

After all that rigmarole, at least I didn't have a long wait in the departure lounge as it was nearly time to board. The flight to Lima was fine, though not as good as those LAN flights that I took across the Pacific as I didn't have my own TV screen. I also had a toddler sat behind me who spent the entire time kicking my chair. Not good. I did witness my first ever thunderstorm from the air though, somewhere over Bogotá I think, which was pretty damn spectacular. I was glad to get off at Lima and change planes, on which I had exactly the same meal as the first flight - good job it was decent! I wisely slept for the most of it, although by the time I reached Sao Paulo on Monday morning, I felt pretty grim.

Once I collected my bag (which thank goodness had indeed been correctly transfered at Lima!), I then spent an hour wandering around Arrivals, looking for a LAN office and someone who could tell me if I was owed tax or not! "No, we don't know, you have to ask Qantas" came the reply. Cheers. Then the spending continued - 30 reais on a shuttle to the bus terminal, 62.50 reais on a bus to Rio de Janeiro - I'd been warned that Brazil is expensive, and it wasn't a lie! When I finally arrived in Rio at 4.30 that afternoon, I was ready to collapse but I still had to make it across the city to my hostel. By this point, it was obvious to me that I'd struggle a bit with no Portuguese, but I managed to make it onto the correct city bus and even asked the conductor to tell me where to get off. She seemed to take pity on me, especially as the city buses here have a turnstile on them, which of course I couldn't get through with all my bags. Bet the locals thought it was hilarious as I threw most of my belongings over it, then hoisted my backpack over the top.

When I finally reached my hostel, Piratas de Ipanema, at around 6pm, I had been travelling for 24 solid hours! This place had been recommended to me by a guy in Taganga who raved about how great it was, especially how friendly and helpful the staff were. Indeed, they were very helpful and helped me settle right in. When I booked it online, I stupidly hadn't read the reviews of the hostel, and it was only after I had committed myself that I found out that is was supposed to be filthy! On inspection, it wasn't the best place, but it was cheap and all I needed was a place to get a good night's sleep... oh dear... Monday night was quite noisy, especially as my dorm was right next to the TV room, but eventually, I dropped off and slept for a few hours.

Yesterday, I took it easy as I had a bit of a relapse, but I did manage a walk along the famous Ipanema beach. The weather was overcast anyway, so I didn't feel too bad about returning to the hostel early that afternoon, to simply relax with my book. It was still pretty noisy in the hostel after 11pm, and I was hoping it would abate soon, or at least for me to be able to sleep through it. I did indeed drop off, only to be awoken by some IDIOT swearing his head off right outside the dorm. What stunned me the most was that nobody anywhere seemed to be making any effort to go about anything quietly. As I groggily came around, I realised that the TV was still blaring and music was still being played... AND all this was at 4 am!!! That was the point at which I snapped and resolved that, no matter how cheap it was, I could not spent another night in that place! In 16 countries and 10 months of travelling, I can honestly say that I have never stayed in such a bad place, even the one with the insect infestation in Nha Trang was a million times better!

So, this morning, as soon as I woke up, I went online to look for a new hostel. I then walked a fair way to find one, for more than double the price AND at the top of a really steep hill, but it was clean, friendly and quiet! So then I had to walk back to Piratas to collect my things and check out and trek back again up the hill, in packhorse mode. I should have taken a taxi, of course, but in my stubborness to save money, I thought I'd wear myself out just a little bit more! So, all I've done today it change accommodation and buy a pair of Havaianas, which were actually a bargain and look very Brazilian in bright yellow and blue! I have also booked myself two tours for tomorrow, one of the city including Cristo Redentor and Sugar Loaf mountain, and then I am going to watch Fluminense play Sport Recife at the Maracaná Stadium! More money gone but what the hell... when in Rio!!!