More Beaching we hope

We flew, another positive step in the campaign for no more overnight buses!!! 

Our best view of the Big Jesus

Rio, Rio, Rio.  

Well the pix from here will be like Rio you´ve never seen. Raining and grey, not a soul on the beach. Not a bikini in site. Lots of soccer goals but no balls you know.

So we went to the Big Jesus, but it was belting down rain and the guy at the ticket booth said we wouldn´t see anything from the top, so we thought we´d leave it for the next day, friends went upand couldn´t even see Jesus let alone the view. Not the right season, or just unlucky. Quite disappointing though to be here and not see THE sights.

The other ´must do´Rio activity is the favela tour, favelas are the many slums of the city and from all accounts sound organised with schools and power and everything, but we gave the tours a miss as police aer doing major crackdowns on the drug dealers in the slums and 18 people were killed in a shootout the day before we got there. It´s always nice falling asleep to the gentle sound of machine gun fire...

Copacobana beach like you´ve never seen it!

We went to the beach and it was cool, huge waves, soft sand. Rain. But deserted and probably not often the way you see it. A unique experience. The next day was better weather, and we sat at Copacobana and had a couple of Caipirinhas and watched the world go by. It really was cool, and busier with the weather and it being a Saturday. Rio would be super cool in summertime.

We bumped into a couple from the Pantanal who were witness to the drama of the´hostage situation´ it was good to see them and hear how it all went after we left. What a nightmare, I am so glad to be over that now! And we got out of Brazil safely, I was half imagining the police to pull us aside... And on our flight were acouple we met in Buenos Aires and it was good to catch up with them as well, we´ve had a random day of bumping into people.

Sugarloaf rock

We have really been enjoying Brazil´s food, and there are loads of pay by the kilo restaurants, which is waay better than all you can eat, because you only get what you want and don´t overload your plate, what a concept! And obviously the fruit here is to die for, the passionfruit are the size of rockmelons, I saw an Avocado yesterday that was 4 times normal size, it´s freaky!

Anyway so sadly we have said goodbye to Brasil =( I really, really enjoyed it, and we saw only a tiny bit. The country areas were far better than the cities (not that we spent much time in Rio). Brazilians are wicked peope, happy, confident, helpful, funny. I woud love to go back to Bahia and explore the state more, and head north along the beaches and into the jungle. But it will have to wait as it´s a trip on it´s own. Definitely a recommended destination from us but be aware it is HUGE.

ok, so we got a little sunshine 0)

Flying from Santiago - smog not clouds