Day 4

By Wouter & Robert

Today on the program “surprise activity” although, because of the rainy  weather forecast the day before everyone could chose to join. The surprise activity of today is a boat trip to the island Ilha de Paquetta. On this island there are little to no cars allowed to drive around,instead of cars they use carriage with horses and bikes. The relative calmness of the island was a welcome change to the busy schedules of Rio’s busy centre. At arrival the sun was shining bright and this led to a fast visit to the first shop where swimming shorts were available. After a short walk we reached the beach at the other side of the island, a shocking 300 meters ahead.

After a short resting period we discovered the island , first instance this led to a visit to the restaurant. After the mauling of a delicious fish plateau with a cup of coffee and soda we went to go searching for touristic highlights. At one of the pointes of the island stands a beautiful ruin. We had a beautiful view over the bay of Rio.

Time to go back to the main coast, on the way back to the ferry the ladies gave a show of their driving skills, drifting wheelie on a boulevard bicycle buggy on high speed. Surprisingly parking the car appeared to be a bigger problem, but with some help this was also a problem that was easily resolved.  Once on the boat, more than two third of the group has been captured on the sensitive plate.

After the metro trip back to the hostel we prepared us for an epic all you can eat pizza party with of course caparinha’s. when we were stuffed we prepared us for a night out in Lapa, the place to be in Rio de Janeiro. On Friday night the streets will be closed for all traffic what was nicely in line with our car(e)free visit to the Island.