I arrived in Cabo Frio. This city has around 200 000 people, it's located on the coast, and I'll spend here a whole month volunteering in a hostel.
Last night I spent actually not in Rio, but Niterói. This place is exactly on the way to Cabo Frio, just around 130 kilometres away, but in the morning I still struggled to get up and start hitchhiking. Especially after finding blablacar just for 30 reais...
But in the end I got up and I called a taxi to get on the road at the exit of the city. Yes, a taxi! The thing is, the bus in Niterói costs almost 4 reais and to get to that place, I would have to take 2 buses and pay 8 reais. As I got a discount of 20 reais for taxi of "99" app, I decided to take it and I paid just 2 reais.
with my driver
I was waiting around 15 minutes and I was laughing of myself as it looked just ridiculous, everybody who passed next to me, was turning back just to see what's written on my sign. After that 15 minutes one bus stopped and they started calling me to get in, but as it was bus with passengers I said "viajo de carona, de graça, não tenho dinheiro para pagar a vocés" - which means "I am hitchhiking, for free, I don't have money to give it to you". But they insisted to get in, that it will be for free and they can give me a ride of around 30 kilometres. So I got in and I swear, passengers looked like if they wanted to kill me. I am not surprised, they paid 10 reais for the same ride...
The place where they left me wasn't the best as it was next to bus terminal, full of people and not really safe. One person showed me the buses going to Cabo Frio, another told me that if I walk 50 metres more, there is also good place for cars to stop, and it will be much safer. So I went there and I didn't wait more than 5 minutes for the first car to stop. The driver was going to Arraial do Cabo which is just next to Cabo Frio, but actually he drove me directly to the hostel where I am volunteering now. We talked about many stuff, he travels around the world a lot as well, we discussed some global politics, as well as we talked about Brazil - as I was surprised when he said he knows Brazil has huge problems but he likes to live here. Most of people focus on the downsides of this country, that's why I was surprised, and yeah it's true, people here have to deal with huge issues, but the culture here is amazing and generally I think Brazil is a wonderful place. When I'm thinking of leaving it at some point, I'm already starting to miss this place.
So - first hitchhiking in Brazil during this trip - done ! And as it went pretty well, now I'm full of positive energy 😄😄
In the end my card wasn't charged even for this 2 reais for a taxi, coz a driver put kind of his own discount as well. So I didn't pay anything :D