Where in the World are V and M?: Carnaval City

So we landed in world renowned Rio de Janeiro. We’d been looking forward to this visit for some time. Good thing we already had reservations for a hostel to stay at… or actually we don’t have any reservations at all and have been praying our faces off for a miracle. (If you ever want to visit Rio in January, you need to make reservations in advance if you want any kind of choice of where to stay.) Yeah, throughout our trip in Brazil we’d been looking and looking at all manner of websites to find a hostel to make a reservation in Rio. Everything was booked. No Vacancy. No Availability. No Place for you to Rest your Head. So, as usual, we figured that we’d wing it. Surely the websites can’t have the most current information.

So yes, we arrive in Rio and wonder what in the world we’re going to do. We could catch a cab to…. (Where would we go?) Oh, maybe we just rent a car and drive around to find something (Um...maybe not.) We grab our bags off the carousel and head to the exit. We head out and what do we see before us. A 6’3” dude holding a sign with our names on it, that’s what. WHAT!!! He took us out to a car where another guy was tapping numbers into his cell phone and greeted us with a smile. PRAISE THE LORD!!! Freddy, our new friend in Brasilia, had called ahead to find some brothers that could help us out. We were, to be honest, completely surprised. It was 6am. (How many of you would, honestly, drive to the airport, to pick up someone you don’t know, knowing that the reason they needed a ride was that they failed to plan? I don’t know about you guys, but I’d really struggle with that.) But that’s what they did. We need to give a HUGE thank you to Hercules and Alexandre for waking up extra early (on their vacation) to come pick us up and help us find a place. Alexandre is the lead Evangelist of the Rio de Janiero International Church of Christ and Hercules is helping with the teen ministry there. They took us in the car and made all manner of phone calls to hostel after hostel, trying to find a place for us. They treated us to breakfast. They drove us to the church office so we could get online to find more phone numbers to call. When we found one that would work they spoke to the receptionist and worked out a place for us. Then Hercules took us in a taxi (Alexandre had to leave to get ready for his own flight) to the hostel and took care of the fare. (HOSPITALITY – that’s the biggest thing we’ve learned from this trip, God has shown us this over and over again. Wow.)

So we got to the hostel, Café Rio. It is really, really nice. The woman at the front desk, Marcia, was soooo sweet. We were quite exhausted from our trip and the adrenaline we had as we frantically looked for somewhere to stay had died off. But, though we were grateful to have a place to stay, we knew we could not afford to stay more than 1 night ($R110). We needed something closer to what we paid in Sao Paulo (wishful thinking at the last minute, but hey, God can do it.) So we hop on the internet again and look for another hostel nearby for our remaining nights in Rio. We walk across town (1 hour), after stopping for some arroz com frango e churrasca and some water. (If you really want to take in the full scope of a city you really should walk, in my opinion.) We’d found another hostel called Vila Carioca Hostel. The cost was right up our ally ($R70/night). But, there were no more mixed dorms available, at least not for both of us to be in the same room. So we bit the bullet and chose to split up, me in the male dorm, and Mu in the female dorm. We decide to head back to hostel #1, picking up some groceries on the way, took a shower and slept. What an exciting and draining first day in Rio de Janeiro we had!