We arrived at the airport quite early and tried to get some sleep before our 4 a.m. flight to Rio. The seats were not at all comfy, so John just slept on the floor. Classy. Not the best schedule, but in John's defense it did save us a day compared to the bus.
The bus ride to the center of Rio was very interesting. We then understood the guidebook's comments about crazy drivers. I managed to fall asleep after the passage on the elevated highway was over (high speed on the turns of an elevated highway gives some adrenaline). Thankfully, because we were apparently close to hitting another bus... Bus drivers were not the only crazy ones on the road, taxis were not bad either, so to the extent possible we opted for the metro (it was also a good way to avoid traffic).
Unfortunately, our room at the hostel was not ready yet so we occupied the sofas and had a good two-hour sleep. Feeling slightly refreshed, we had a nice walk on Copacabana beach and came back to our hostel in Santa Teresa for a nap at about 6pm, which ended up lasting about 14 hours.
The next day, we went on a really interesting citytour. Sugar Loaf or Pao de Açucár was the first stop. It is about 400m high and as you can see from the picture, there is a quite a scenic telepheric to get there. We enjoyed the view, and in particular watching planes turning in the bay and landing at the domestic airport. We also went to the Corcovado, on which the Christ the Redeemer statue stands. The view was stunning (as was the number of photos we took). We also saw the Maracana stadium and the venue where the Carnaval competition takes place. We resisted the temptation to try on the carnaval costumes so there won't be silly pics.
We had a quick stroll back to our new hostel near Copacabana (as the other hostel had only one night of availability), picked up some pasta to cook at the hostel's kitchen (starting to be a bit more budget-conscious), and collapsed into bed at about 10.
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