Rio de Janeiro

A day before the guys flew off, they realized that Rio de Janeiro is also beautiful and they want to go there. So, they quickly changed their plans, rented a car, parked Egon at the airport, and headed to Rio!

In Rio, we randomly drove to a hostel and they actually had a room available for us. Well, it's also the low season, it's 'winter' after all. The hostel was located on Copacabana between two favelas. We only realized that we were living in close proximity to the favelas after no taxi wanted to take us to our hostel. Then we also noticed that there were always police officers at the bottom of the hill. We asked them if we could walk up to the hostel and they said it's no problem. We stayed on the left side, and apparently, the right side is not so cool. I was surprised to see that there are actually quite precise borders between the favela and residential areas, and that's also where the border between safety and insecurity lies. Jonas and I were not very shocked by the living standards in the favelas, it looks like middle-class areas in Bolivia.

In general, in Rio, one should always keep their eyes and ears open. It's simply a big city that is heavily influenced by drug trafficking and where many poor people live.

However, Rio also has that certain something, it's still light and full of life. The residents like to relax on the beach, and the region has a lot to offer.

From Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain, you have a beautiful view of the entire city, which is located between the mountains and around the bay. There are Caipirinhas on every corner, and the churrasquerias (meat restaurants) have tons of delicious meat. Of course, we also spent an afternoon at Copacabana, and the guys were almost mesmerized by all the beautiful Brazilian women in their skimpy bikinis.

Traveling with three men who haven't seen each other in a long time is quite 'interesting'. One of them is constantly needing to use the restroom or getting hungry again after an hour, and a large part of the conversation is just nonsense. Somehow, it's still fun and definitely a great change of pace.