Rio de Janiero - The Final Instalment

Views from Sugar Loaf mountain.
see all photos »

Well, this definitely is the final one.

Our Rio adventure began at the airport, a 1960´s concrete monstrosity with a textured floor designed to knock luggage trollies off course. Finding a cash machine in Rio that will give you money is an adventure in itself. My cash card, which has behaved impeccably from Tahiti to Tongariro has suddenly become a colourful, but ultimately useless identity card, except if you happen to be fortunate enough to stumble across the one magic machine in every 100 that will give you cash (for a small fee). My quick dash out into Leblon to get some cash almost ended in Naomi sending out a search party and formally reporting me as missing in action. The Shell garage of all places was my eventual saviour after about an hour of fruitless searching.

Our rivals for the title were old or aging saggy specimens who were all wearing way too little - their modesty protected only by small amounts of sweaty lycra.

A redeeming feature
see all photos »

We´ve been staying in a nice apartment at the Mercure Apartments Leblon (see review above if you´re heading this way, otherwise you may want to give it a swerve). We decided on this one after much debate with Naomi trying to find a 5 star hotel on the beach and me looking for a comfy hostel downtown. After 6 months its a bit late to start counting the pennies I suppose. Anyway, it´s a nice place to end our trip.

We read with interest in the Lonely Planet that Leblon and Ipanema are the beach resorts where all the beautiful people hang out and strut along the promenade. It would have been rude not to head out for a quick peek.

Thong watch on Copacabana
see all photos »

On 22 March, despite being a bit crusty around the edges with me not having had a haircut in over 2 months and Naomi not having seen a salon since our wedding 6 months ago, we probably were the most attractive people in Ipanema. Our rivals for the title were old or aging saggy specimens who were all wearing way too little - their modesty protected only by small amounts of sweaty lycra. The tans were impressive, I´ll give them that. However, they all seemed to be running - or trying to - and none of them actually looked like they had ever done it before. Maybe it was beginners´ day. We´ll try again tomorrow.

Christ the Redeemer, Rio
see all photos »

Today we did a day trip around Rio with `Best Tour in Rio` which unfortunately involved about 5 hours of sitting on a bus, either stuck in traffic, picking up other passengers or waiting for other buses to arrive to pick up people on our bus who should have been on theirs. It was a shame because Rio has some great sights and the trip up Sugar Loaf Mountain was nice, as was the trip to the Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer, although by the time we finally got up there it was covered in cloud. `To your left you can see.... a cumulo nimbus cloud... and to your right...another`.

Views of Rio from Sugar Loaf mountain.
see all photos »

If you happen to be in Rio, do yourself a favour and just jump in a taxi. It´ll save you money and a lot of waiting around. On our tour they drove us all the way through town to see the outside of the world´s biggest football stadium, the Maracana (130,000 people).  Can we go in? No, we have some more traffic to show you instead. Gee thanks.

We´ve had an unbelievable 6 months and so many amazing experiences that will no doubt stay with us forever. It is so difficult to pick out just one, so here is our top 10, in no particular order:

1. Sitting on a sofa in a traditional healer´s house in a township in East London, S. Africa and watching a local youth dance group perform their anti-drug, anti-violence play.

2.  Watching two elephants face off just yards from our car in Addo, S. Africa.

3.  Hang-gliding over Cape Byron, Australia

4.  Watching Monty Panesar take 5 wickets against Australia on Day 1 at the WACA, Perth.

5.  Watching the fireworks over Sydney Harbour on New Years Eve.

6.  Snorkelling with the tropical fish in the warm waters of Moorea.

7.  Visiting the Maui heads on Easter Island.

8.  Seeing the ruins at Machu Picchu appear out of the mist at 6.30am

9.  Sipping cocktails whilst watching a tango show in Buenos Aires.

10.  Taking a jetboat up to (and into) the Iguazu Falls, Brazil

We´ve also had a laugh recalling some of our worst moments but I think we´ll keep those to ourselves. Whilst we are both a bit sad that our trip has to come to an end, I think we´re ready to come home now. Given a choice of any place in the world that I could go right now, I think it would be Bristol, England. Whilst travelling has given us such a great opportunity to see and experience new and different things, it has also made us appreciate home that much more and made us realise that despite its faults (and the lousy weather we´ve missed out on in the southern hemisphere for the last 6 months) we actually really like the city - and country - that we live in. Which is nice.

If you´ve made it to the end of this one, I admire your staying power. Now haven´t you got work to do?