Hello Everyone, I am going to be visiting Family in Lima this September and figure since I'm in South America I should go to Brazil. The cheapest flight plan I have have found would a be a round trip LAX to Lima and having another round trip, Lima to Rio. The Lima-Rio flight is $622 from what I was able to find on Fly.com.

The next thing I am trying to figure out is my living situation, I have a friend who's dad lives in Rio and if that friend comes I will just stay at his dad's, but if not I need to figure out where to stay. I want to be in Rio for New Years as well as Carnaval and would like to stay there in between. Are hostels the way to go as far as keeping costs down? Are the safe ways to find people looking for roomates there, I'd be open to that if the cost is reasonable. I am going to look into local surf there, but if there is some good surf around I would like to bring my board, would this be an issue at a hostel(either because of space or theft)?

Thanks everybody, this will be my first trip I have to plan so all advice is welcome.