Rio Apartments

It takes 14 hours to get into Rio with a change in Sau Paulo to the south. Depending on which flight you book you can wait up to 6 hours in Sau Paulo. I specifically wanted a quick turnaround and in the end I was on the ground for just 45 minutes.

My driver (supplied by the apartment rental company) arrived 10 minutes after me and whisked us off to Copacabana in 25 minutes despite the heavy traffic.

An apartment was the most cost effective option. I had forgotten it was Carnival time in Rio which of course means the price of accommodation doesn't just double – it triples. Even so I managed to get a deal on a tiny studio in Copa for £39 a day.

So what does £39 a day buy you during peak season in Rio? Here you go:

My bedroom!

My dining area and tiny kitchen!

My bijou bathroom.

So it's not the biggest or best equipped pad in Rio - but - it has everything I need for the little time that I spend here.

NEXT TIME : pictures of Rio, I promise.

Resources:
www.kayak.com great for flights
http://www.agencia-heidelberg.com.br great for apartments, multi lingual and accept PayPal for deposits

Why Brazil? Why Now?

Welcome to another of my off beat travel journals which I hope will entertain and inform. If you enjoyed 30 Days in Thailand then no doubt you will also (hopefully) enjoy this!

Looking out of my window it's another grey, overcast rainy day in the UK. The temperature is about 8 degrees - and its been like that for about 3 months. Personally I feel like I should be on what my friend Dave cheerfully refers to as "suicide watch."

He's got a point. I think everyone suffers to greater or lesser extent from SAD. It may or may not be a legitimate condition all I can tell you is over winter my mood plummets, my productivity suffers and , well I'm just not as happy! Who would want to be stuck indoors shivering in the half light of a UK winter anyway?

I admit I have a bit of a thing for the Americas and having tried and not fully succeeded in learning Portuguese in the past Brazil is already high on my list. Add the blistering weather, the delicious food and the beautiful people and the question becomes why aren't we all going to Brazil?

So the plan is to go for a month, learn Portuguese, get a tan, hopefully some of the natural beauty will rub off on me. Feel free to subscribe to this blog and I promise I'll try to keep it amusing and educational!

Caio!