Sheraton Barra Hotel And Suites Rio de Janeiro

... last, we were here!!<br><br>In spite of the rainy day we walked to Ipanema beach and had some lunch. The 4´2" tall waiter fell head over heels for Erica and got her e-mail and a photo. We were pretty disoriented after the 14 hours of flying, so we then went back home, took a nap and headed out for dinner at about 7pm. Everyone had repeatedly warned us about the dangers of robbery (and kidnapping!), so we left all watches, earrings, necklaces, purses and ...

... her face which made rolfe laugh so hard he went to sleep. <br> <br><br> 3<br> <br> Day one down...30 ...

... for a while with our books and savoured the good climate around us. After much difficulty in finding it, we managed to catch a performance of the new Star Trek film in the Botafogo district - well worth the wait in my opinion.<br><br>The next day we began our city exploration by taking a tour. We revisited the Maracana stadium, this time to its museum, to step in the footprints of Brazil's greatest football players on the floor as well as taking silly pictures with the players on the ...

... for around your neck!? Yep they have it! It reached about 26oC yesterday and about 31oC today. Today was amazing, we took a day tour of Rio and checked out some of the main sights it has to offer (Cost B$120 = 50 euro). A guy picked us up at 1pm and we drove around to about 4 other hostels in our 14 seater van to pick up the rest of the family to go on the tour! The first stop was up Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue (Which is ...

... around and enjoy the atmosphere. And while the Samba band wasn't the best (according to Fernanda) we still enjoyed it and I caught Fernanda singing the lyrics to many of the songs. I had you&shy;-tubed (a new verb?) "Samba Rio" before the trip and found a video of a Samba band playing here, so I recognized the atrium and stage. We left and went to another bar down the street with another band playing. There was a birthday party at the next table and ...

... met niets anders dan een versleten broekje aan (geen slippers ofzo), graatmagere straathonden, jongeren die bij gebrek aan een toekomst de hele dag knetterstoned doorbrengen, heel veel ellende. En gatverdamme wat voel je je dan gezegend dat je in Nederland bent geboren. Waarom ben ik die jongen niet die maar wat in het niets zit te staren? Pfff.... Toch is er ook hoop, kleine ondernemers die hun brood op een eerlijke manier proberen te verdienen, kinderen die joelend ...

... glimpsing hampered, we set off to explore the neighborhoods, sample the fine cuisine and samba music and try to steer clear of the city's notorious crime. We opted to stay in the trendy Ipanema section, in a hostel called, appropriately enough, The Girl from Ipanema (although as it turned out the name was the only thing it had going for it). Hoping to defy the weather gods, we started off with a funicular trip up to Pao de ...

... br><br> <br><br>She walked back up to meet me, gave me a big hug and was smiling like a little kid on Christmas morning! <br><br>We'd both loved every single second of it. <br><br>I like this photo of Katie walking off the beach and up to the promenade, it reminds me of Top Gun ...

... a risky venture. The long ride from the hotel up the twisty mountain road into Tijuca National Forest, the largest urban park in the world, gave us plenty of time to think about backing out, but none of us did. We girls had decided this was the adventure for the day. It turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. The view from the top of Pedra Bonita was marvelous. It was a little scary, looking out knowing I would jump from this height in just a flimsy bits of nylon and some ...