Last days in Rio

I have been off of the internet for the last few days which has been actually nice. Not having a blackberry has also been nice as well, as Jenn knows I am always giving it much attention. So what has been going on over the last few days....So last thursday or friday (honestly forget since days and time just kind of go by when you travel) Lou and I hiked the highest peak in Rio. It has been trying at times but always great traveling with Lou. Heknows how to test the boundries with people but is never afraid to ask questions on how to get places or things like that. Since we don´t speak portugese and since the brazilians are always pretty open to help, things have been ok. We actually have only taken 4 taxi rides thus far and have been able to utilize the excellent bus and metro system. The hike was nice, it took about 2 hours to get to the top, which is actually the highest point in rio. The weather sucked that day, so we did not have much of a view of rio. Enjoyed whatever views would peak thru the clouds and then headed back down for to make it to the weekly CS rio meetup. It was a nice turn out, probably about 40 or so couchsurfers from all over the world. Met others from colombia, france, germany, and the US. Always nice to sync up with like minded folks. Friday was spent apartment/hostel hunting as my old roomate from college Jay would be coming in to Rio on saturday and the current place was just a bit too small for the three of us. We basically ended up spending most of the day in the beach town of Ipanema looking for a place. Found a hostel where an american was working and ended up chatting for over 2 hours about Rio and Bahai, our next stop after Rio. Friday night in Lapa was supposedly the place to be. We went with a couchsurfer from Philly and the area was packed with people. Streets closed off and tons of people everywhere. Walking around we ended up running into more couchsurfers, having drinks with them and then grabbing food and then going into some club with a live band. It was a good night out when heading home a little after 3, the streets were still packed. Saturday morning Jay arrived....to be continued....