This is an excerpt from www.couchsurfing.com; Couch surfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. Couch Surfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections worldwide.
So, basically it is a website that connects travelers with people in the communities they are traveling to that are willing to let them stay on their couches or extra beds for free. Deanna and I had both heard of this before and we thought that Rio would be the perfect opportunity for both of us to try it out! We looked on the website and ended up finding a guy from Ohio that is studying in Rio for 6 months. We sent him an e-mail and he replied that he had two openings so we were off to the Flamingo district to find Chris from Ohio.
We arrived at his apartment around 8:00 and got settled in. Chris is studying graphic design and is a year younger than us. He has two roommates that are also studying in Rio. One is from France and one is from Belgium. There were also two girl travelers from Belgium staying with them while we were there. Deanna and I set up shop on the two couches in the living room and the girls from Belgium took the extra bedroom. It was a very interesting experience. It was so hard for me to believe that these guys would just let complete strangers stay with them for free, but they were so nice and made us feel right at home.
After we got settled, Deanna and I headed out for our good-bye dinner. Chris suggested that we try an authentic Brazilian churrascaria. We had not really eaten too much Brazilian food during our stay so we thought that would be a perfect last meal. It was about what you would expect, lots of meat! It was really good though and was a good conclusion to our stay in Brazil.
This morning, my last morning, we got up to do one last touristy thing. We headed over to Sugar Loaf Mountains. It is a series of three mountains and you travel from peak to peak in a trolly car that is suspended between the mountains. It was a very beautiful and clear day and we both got some really good pictures of the city. After that we just headed back to Chris' apartment to pack and rest before my departure.
I got to the airport around 6:30 to give myself plenty of time to get lost before my 9:45 flight! The Rio airport is much smaller and has many more English speakers than the Sao Paulo airport so I was able to make my way around pretty well. I caught my plane and now I am sitting in the Miami airport waiting on my flight to DFW that will conclude my abbreviated tour of South America!
I had so much fun and it was great to get to spend time with my old friend Deanna. She is going to continue traveling through South America and then return to the states around December-ish. Keep checking her blog for more of her crazy adventures!
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