Honeymoon Hop - Rio de Janeiro

Dylan and I were pretty bummed when it was time to say goodbye to São Paulo. We were just starting to get acclimated to São Paulo's cosmopolitan nightlife and restaurants. Plus having cousin Alysson to guide us was a serious perk. But Alysson was heading up to Brasilia, his hometown, to be with his family for Christmas. And we, we had a flight to Rio de Janeiro.

Goodbye São Paulo. Sniff.

Ola Rio!

Once we landed, Dylan and I grabbed our backpacks and headed straight for the REAL Bus which dropped us off in Ipanema for 5USD/each vs. the 40-50USD taxi ride. Money saved is money spent...on FOOD.

We walked a couple of blocks from Av. Viera Souto (Ipanema's main beach drag) and finally arrived to our home for the next few days. Ipanema Beach House is like the hostels of all hostels. Located in prime Ipanema, you would never guess this was a hostel.

After settling in with some Itaipavas, we found out there was a Pelé charity game at Estádio do Maracanã. I wanted to sleep soooo bad, but Dylan was dying to go. You should have seen his face, it was like a little Chinese boy in a beef jerky shop. I couldn't say no.

We caught a cab and asked our driver to take us to Estádio do Maracanã. His eyes bulged and he started talking to us in Portuguese. We couldn't understand what he was saying and we eventually found ourselves playing charades with our taxi driver. He made a lot of stabbing motions and we realized he was trying to tell us that Maracanã was a shady area.

When we got to the stadium we proceeded straight to the ticket booth and made sure not to make any eye contact with the "scalpers" along the way. Shady!

Once we got in, everything was fine. We sat behind a cute Brasilian family who ended up sharing some stadium snacks.

We kept seeing guys walking buy selling these rings called Biscoitos Globo. They are the perfect cheesy puffy chip snacks. They come in two flavors...sweet (below) and salty (above).

When we got back to the hostel, we realized that every single restaurant was closed. Oops. We totally forgot it was Christmas Eve. Dylan's caveman instinct kicked in and we headed straight to the Kikarnes, the closest corner market. We picked up some steaks, linguiça calabresa (Brasilian sausages), fresh bread rolls, and grapes...all for less than 7USD.

We headed back to the hostel kitchen and seasoned the steaks with the iodized salt, pepper, and garlic.

We were thankful that Ipanema Beach House had a brick grill in the back we were blessed with this freshly grilled meal. Our dinner was perfect and there is nothing I would change about our first Christmas together.

Cachaça for Christmas. Uh oh.

To be continued...

Ipanema Beach House
Rua barao da torre, 485
Ipanema , Rio de Janeiro
(21) 3202-2693
www.ipanemahouse.com

Kikarnes
R. Visconde de Pirajá, 224
Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro
(21) 2239-6499