After 8 days and nights of beaches, favelas, multicoloured stairs and mountains, we packed our bags and waved goodbye to Mr Redeemer and headed off to Ilha Grande. Two hours after leaving Rio we arrived at the coastal town of Mangaritiba where we caught a short ferry to the Island. Once on the island, a quick stroll along the beach and through the tiny town and we reached our new home for next 3 three nights; The Biergarten Hostel. As it was our first night in a new destination we thought we would treat ourselves to a slap up meal in town. So we showered, got dressed, tossed aside the super noodles and headed off for a cheeky Brazilian treat, it was needed and very much enjoyed. The next day we were up early for a ... read more

Another day and another lazy morning, oh how things went somewhat different from this point on. We headed down to Leblon as usual to catch a bus, this time over to Novo Rio bus terminal to buy our tickets out of Rio later this week. Our intended bus zoomed straight past in typical Rio style without stopping! Instead of waiting in the sweltering heat for another 20 minutes, we begrudgingly hoped onto the next bus headed for Rio Central (nearby our original target destination). Once we arrived we decided to sack off going to find the Bus Station and head straight to find the apparently fabulous Escadaria Selaron steps (Mainly so Rich could pretend to be Snoop dogg in the video 'beautiful' for a brief moment). With map in hand and the location of the steps ... read more

After watching the sunset last night, we were up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise and to beat the crowds at Christ the Redeemer. 6.30am and it was already boiling. To our amazement we managed to find the right bus to take us to the ticket office. The train ride up is steep with spectacular views, stopping of at a few view points along the way. Once we got off, it was just a few steps up to the foot of the statue. At first we were relatively surprised at the few others who had made it up before us...it didn't take long until we were engulfed by hundreds of other photo hungry tourists vying for the best spot to pose in the obligatory 'arms out pose'. After managing to squeeze a few ... read more

After a long, boozy flight we finally arrived in Rio, around 7.15pm. As the sun was setting we thought we would grab our bags and just get a taxi to our apartment. Of course, things are never that easy. Organisation at immigration was abysmal and we were left waiting in an extremely hot corridor, surrounded by 4 flights worth of sweaty, agitated passengers. After a dehydrating 2 hour wait we were finally through. After the long wait, our bags were there waiting for us, so we picked them up and hoped in the first cab we could get in a bid of desperation to get to out beds ASAP. Quoted 105 reals, it was no real surprise when in a very broken exchange of words and hand signals the driver decided he wanted another 20 reals ... read more