Monday had us spending most of the day travelling from Santiago to Rio de Janiero. We arrived in pouring rain and peak hour traffic but our taxi driver seemed quite at ease negotiating the traffic while watching TV on a small screen mounted on the dashboard and answering his mobile phone. We arrived at our hotel with 5 minutes to spare before meeting up with our new group of travelling companions and our new tour leader Marianne who is a local. After a meal with our group, we took the opportunity to venture down to Copacabana Beach for a drink and to enjoy the warm evening air.