First Stop, Rio De Janeiro

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We have finally arrived at our first stop on our round-the-world trip: sunny Rio de Janeiro! After a 14 hour plane journey, we arrived in 40 degrees temperatures. We dumped our stuff in the nice air-conditioned hotel and went straight to Ipanema Beach. At night it stays really hot and humid too at about 30 degrees C.

Rio is an absolutely HUGE city, with a marked difference between rich and poor. We are staying in a “nice” area, but in the outer barrios there is a lot of poverty.

We have spent most of our time sunbathing on Ipanema or Copacabana Beach, and doing the main tourist things - Sugar Loaf Mountain and Corcovado (Christ Statue). We went out with some Aussie guys one night who introduced us to the local drink speciality - the “capprioca”. It is made by taking a handful of lime wedges, mushing them up in a glass, adding ice to the top, and then adding a local spirit of a rediculously high alcohol content!

Today we arrived at Foz du Iguassu, which is on the Brazilian/Argentinian border. The hostel is part of a campsite and is beautiful, and even better, has a gorgeous swimming pool, and it is only £5 a night - may end up staying here longer than expected! The area is famous for the Iguassu waterfall, which is supposed to be bigger and better than Niagara (although I suspect that most Americans would argue that point!). We are planning to visit the Brazilian side tomorrow and the Argentinian side on Monday.

After that we will probably be heading into Argentina.

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Photos

Sugar Loaf Mountain
View of Rio De Janeiro