last day blues

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As we sit here facing the prospect of our impending flight home we ask ourselves how are we going to sum up our trip! anyway we will start at what we have been doing since we got back into rio. we arrived in rio after our flight from iguazu at 2045 and after a bit of haggling we jumped in a taxi and headed for our hostel in copacabana. We arrived at the hostel at 2130, although we seemingly had the right place there were no signs and no lights were on, puzzled we tried the door bell in the hope someone would come and welcome us! no answer so we tried again, then finally the door was opened by an australian women (who turned out to be a bit mental). it was obvious that she had just woken up and she was a bit short with us because apparently we had put on the internet that we would be arriving between 1200 and 1300!! we think she was after an apology - she is still waiting. She asked us for a key deposit of 50 Reals, we didn't have that amount on us so she said she would accept 20 australian dollars, 20 american dollars or 20 pounds!!! why would we have this???????? we told her we did not have 20 in any currency and she relunctantly gave us our key. As we were taken to our room she asked us not to leave the hostel until we have been checked in- which she wanted to do in the morning. starving and confused we went to bed.

The next morning we went down to check in and were greeted by the mad woman, who although she was clearly in a better mood evidently still wanted an apology; she even showed us where we had put that we would be arriving at 1200-1300! we then finally left the hostel (after getting the green light!) and we headed for Christ the Redeemer. the statue was good and there were great views of rio, weather wasn´t too bad either. In the evening there was a storm and it rained heavily all night, which meant we had to brave the rain to go and get something to eat!.

The next morning (today) after packing our bags for the last time, we headed for the historical heart of rio (santa teresa) which required us to take a tram ride up the mountain; finding the station proved to be difficult - although not as difficult as finding the art deco staircase which we had wanted to see! In the afternoon we walked along copacabana beach and sat and read for a while, before coming to this internet cafe to write our final blog and cry (internal crying).

We had thought that we were ready to come home until we actually had to face the reality of the situation this morning........now we think we could probably manage a couple more weeks or so! we have had a brilliant trip with some amazing experiences and some not so amazing, we hope with this blog you have had the chance to share in a bit of our fun, see you all back in the motherland. Theres no place like home (click click).Theres no place like home (click click).Theres no place like home (click click).

see you in england.

Carly and Craig
xxx

ps carly and craig do south america.......done

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