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Published: July 30th 2012
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Tuesday 5th June - Foz do Iguazu to Rio de Janeiro
Finally, the time had come for our journey to the final destination of our mammoth trip across the Americas. It was good to be leaving Foz as other than visiting the amazing falls and eating copious amounts of Kebabs from the local lebanese, there wasn't much doing. We were pleased to arrive in Rio to find that this time our bags hadn't been tampered with whilst in transit on the plane and we were quickly able to find a discount taxi into the heart of the city on what was a sweltering night of 30 degrees and near 100% humidity. Arriving at night adds a heightened sense of alert to the dangers which we'd heard so much about but by morning and after a short walk through the dodgy centro area in search of a cash point in the pouring rain and the place didn't feel much different to anywhere else we'd been safety wise.
Wednesday 6th June - Rio
We'd stayed our 1st night in the city at the Formule 1 hotel and now it was time to head off to the Copacabana district to meet
our estate agent for the apartment we'd reserved. This involved a short yomp through the wet streets before embarking onto the metro for a few stops on what is a modern and well priced public transport system and far less manic than the crazy bus drivers who ply their trade here, which I'll say more about shortly. We met the letting agent at his dated offices from where he took us in a taxi to our apartment for the next 6 nights and on getting out had the temerity to ask me to pay for the ride which was easily rectified with an awkward silence followed by him coughing up the cash for the cab. Our apartment unfortunately was a dump but at $80 a night, thats what you get for your money in the city of god. By now it was late afternoon and drizzly but I couldn't resist taking us down to the beach for a walk along the famous sands. Her name was Lola.... she was a showgirl........ la la lar la la lar la la lar..... I think the song goes. 10 minutes later and having spotted a few dodgy characters dug into the deserted beach,
we were ambling our way back to the relative safety of Atlantic Avenue and a closer view of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, favourite haunt of Barry & David and probably Elton. 7 months on the road and in our tired and battered gear, we managed to evade hotel security and walk on in to the hotel with all the crooners and wanabees who generally consist of either plumbers of this world done good living it large or former great train robbers. Oh the power of having the right shade of skin in these parts...........
Thursday 7th June - Rio
Today was the ripe old age of 33 for yours truly and so to celebrate we embarked on a trip to Sugarloaf Mountain, known locally as Pao de Acucar, being the James Bond fan that I am and it being the site of a cable car brawl in Moonraker. On route we stopped at the very lovely Rio Sul shopping mall to pick up my birthday present of a very bright yellow and green pair of Havaianas in honour of our host nation. This also gave us the delight of riding the 1st of many city buses which double
up as a kind of rollercoaster stroke dodgem type ride at no extra cost on the 40p fare. Sugarloaf was indeed very cool and it was surreal to watch the planes take off from Santos Dumont airport and follow in the footsteps of dear old Rog who bumped into Dr Goodhead there as Drax exported his space shuttle parts. Disappointingly his telescope had disappeared in the 33 years since it was filmed so I had to make do with my Mr Magoo eyes. Just to prove one of my earlier theories about the power of stomach fuel induced amnesia following a McDonalds, we popped back to said international restaurant of the uncultured for my birthday meal. It was in fact excellent and the best so far in South America so no amnesia required this time for a return visit!
Friday 8th June - Rio
Another wet day in the carnival city of Rio so we headed back to centro for a proper look around. 2 nights in to our new apartment and we had acclimatised to the squalor which was nice. We had a wander round the central district which had a great energy as the streets bustled
with shoppers from all over the world. By this point, the place had really started to grow on me as since we'd been there it had rained non stop and staying in an almost condemned building whose one redeeming feature was another 1920s albeit slightly modernised elevator, had dampened the spirits a little. We took a look at the famous old cafe Confeitaria Colombo which looked very quaint from the entrance but being a little hungry and impatient decided not to join the long que snaking the building.
Saturday 9th June - Rio
With plans to go the Ipanema Hippy market tomorrow on our last full day, this seemed like our last chance to visit Corcovado and so unfortunately despite the weather being horrendous we went up. We'd been blessed with amazing weather throughout our trip and hadn't once been delayed or inconvenienced by it, except there being no snow for skiing in Vermont in December, so it was kind of ironic that the day we'd come to visit Christ the Redeemer you could see about as far as a shark swimming in the Gulf of Mexico after BP have packed up work and gone home for the
day. A wry sense of humour doth the almighy one hath! Anyhow, we could just about make out the silhoette of the 40 metre tall statue when it was stood at the end of our nose and not a lot else so well worth the 20 buck outlay for a free shower.
Sunday 10th June - Rio
Surprise surprise and the weather had drastically improved today so I could have the pleasure of walking round one final crafts market in the dry before I succumbed to the boredom of looking at an endless pile of souvenirs and ended the pain by riding into the nearest favela astride Silver with a klu klux klan mask over my face. The Ipanema Hippy market was actually very good and we did purchase some nice artwork among other things along the way. The highlight of the day was sitting on the edge of Copacabana beach eating a cheesey empanada and watching some local grease ball who'd spent a bit too long scoping his guns, getting pictured with his surfboard on the beach and then gingerly approaching the ocean having been encouraged to go in for a dip when he clearly much prefered
Stacie drinking Coconut on Copa
Her name was Lola. She was a showgirl.... prancing around with it on the dry sand.
Monday 11th June - Rio to London, England
So the day had finally arrived, our last of the near 7 month trip and our 203rd day on the road. 16 countries visited (Canada, USA, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil & 5 minutes in Paraguay), 337 hours of intercity bus travel, 43 hours in the air on 12 different flights, 23 hours of boat rides, 18 hours on the railways and a lifetimes worth of unforgettable moments and experiences. First job was to hand the keys back to Juan who'd kindly offered to come round halfway through the England v France Euro 2012 game. Annoying as it was he must have brought some good luck with him as we scored about 30 seconds after he walked in to which he exclaimed he didn't realise we were English! 20 minutes later after Juan had kicked us out onto the wet streets of Rio and we found out the little froggies had managed an equaliser. The rest of the afternoon was spent mincing about waiting for our time to run out. I'd started looking
forward to going home but as twilight turned to night and we jumped onto the airport bus we both felt a strange anticlimax as we waved goodbye to Rio, Brazil and our travels across the Americas. After a 4 hour wait at the airport, we'd be on an 11 hour flight back to London and the reality of everyday life......................... hasta la proxima vez!
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