With minimal sleep I was woken at 2am by the hostel manager, Raphael, as my taxi to the airport had arrived. To my suprise the driver was not patiently waiting in his taxi but rather at the local 'offlicense' chugging a quick beer between customers.
Once I had squeezed my bike into the back seat we sped off to to the airport. The driver kindly rolled all the windows down so that I didn't gag on the smell of alcohol along the way. However, I did get to enjoy the aroma of the favelas as we shot by them bouncing along the uneven yet impressive highway braking only momentarily to avoid the attention of the traffic police dotted along the way.
Fortunately we had most of the 3 to 4 lane highway to ourselves so that we could safely corner the bends without having to touch the brake - I just had to keep telling myself its all ok people have been doing this in Joburg for years and lived to tell the tail.
As dramatic as the ride sounded it was all good as I arrived at the airport in record time having had a good one last view of the city by night and now so pumped full of adrenalin I had almost forgotten it was 3am in the morning.
Bike, bag and I have all checked in and are now on our way to Sao Paulo. Mark will be catching the bus in the morning and meeting me there. We have one night there and then we head to Ecuador!
Looks like whatever airport one lands up in - there is bilding work going on.
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