We have officially crash landed from our amazing time at the Marriott and officially discovered possibly one of the worst hostels going. Eco Arco Verde... really it says it all in the name. There were that many ants there that you definitely felt VERY close to nature and very eco.
That wasn't really the worst of it... well, not even scratching the surface. There are so many amusing anecdotes to tell of this hell hole, but I think I will just give you the two best ones.
To start with I should set the scene. Hannah and I have just been out for the first day of carnival, we have been drinking since midday and the hangover has started to kick in. Its about 2am at this point so we're getting pretty tired and just want to go to bed.
We turn up at the hostel to be told by this cranky old woman that we only have 1 bed for the two of us to share for the night. Now we're not unreasonable, but bear in mind that we booked this hostel in October and were paying 50 pounds a night for it as its carnival time (usual rate is about a tenner), we were not impressed to have this explained in shouty Portuguese, sign language and diagrams!
Following our shouting match with the cranky woman Han and I admitted defeat and got comfortable spooning it up in our SINGLE bed (I'm sure she loved it really) muttering to ourselves about finding a new hostel and refusing to pay them.
As if it couldn't get much worse I jumped in the shower in the a.m to have it explode into flames whilst I was in there. How to make a grumpy morning even worse... I told the woman, only to be told that "hot water makes fire"... quite how water makes fire I'm not sure but apparently this made sense to her. Meh, no sleep, nearly electrocuted, all in a normal day hey?
The moral of the story is, don't cheap skate it up too much during carnival... its probably worth spending the extra 10 pounds a night to actually have a bed to yourself. As for their hostel bookers review, I can't wait to rate it with a big fat 0% on every account. I have never been so happy to leave a place as I was to walk out of there and back to the lovely comfort of our previous hostel.
To top it all off, I'm now in Australia where I've found out that all four of our cards got frauded in Brazil! In Arco Verde metro station of all places... so as much as I loved Rio and thought I'd escaped with no more than eating a few ants and nearly getting electrocuted in the shower, instead I found that some nasty Sao Paulo person tried to nick a good 700 pounds off me! Don't worry though I've got it all back, finally Natwest did something right by continually blocking my card!
But don't let all this put you off Rio, its amazing... Just be careful where you stay (I would recommend Stone of a Beach Hostel and be cautious with using your card!)
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