Rio De Janeiro the last blog entry (plus London and Symi)

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Well its taken 7 weeks to complete but here is the last blog!! It covers the last stop on the RTW tour Rio together with some statistics, summary of some of my favourite places and also a few pictures of London and that infamous Greek Island of Symi which was really the revised last stop!

Rio De Janeriro has got to be one of the most stylish and stunning cities i visited. The beaches must be the longest in the world with soft golden sand, the weather was glorious every day (August is their winter!!) and there are plenty of sights, activities, shopping and nightlife to keep you occupied for a few weeks. With a population of 7 million Rio sits on the southern shore of beautiful harbours and extends for 20 km along a strip between the Atlantic and jungle clad mountains. It was discovered in January 1502 by a Portuguese Captain Andre Goncalves and after a few battles with the French which they won it was named Sao Sebastiao de Rio De Janeiro in 1567.

After a sad farewell to Quito it was a mamoth 14 hour 3 flight journey which involved flying to Guayquil in Ecuador at 1.00pm then Lima in Peru and finaly Rio arriving at 5.00am the next day. It was very exciting coming out of the airport and saying 'Taxi-the Copacabana!!!' I'd been wanting to say it for years since Adrian Edmondson said it on TV. By the time I got to the hotel it was time for breakfast and a brisk walk along the Copocabana beach where many joggers and cyclists were doing the same. The next day there I was sitting on the Copacabana soaking up the sun when I heard some high pitched Irish voices speaking very quickly!! The sun was in my eyes so I couldn't see them but then I heard this 'My God its Rob from Quito!' It was the Irish possy I'd met on the Galapagos tour 6 weeks earlier!! They were at the end of their summer tour of South America having travelled from Quito to Rio overland via Peru and Argentina - whilst I'd spent 2 months in Ecuador!! Mind you I had been on the road for 5 months already! That night we went to a great restuarant in Ipanema followed by a club which we eventually left at 5.30am.

As well as the Sugar loaf and Christ the Redeemer days out both of which had breathtaking views two outstanding tours in Rio were the Favela trip and the Maracana stadium football match between Rio's top two teams Flamengo and Fluminense ( who lost to Quito in the equivelant of the South American Champions league). Favela's are the city's shantytowns which were built on the slopes of the city's hills and are populated by the majority of Rio's inhabitants and controlled by the drug barons so they are very safe places!!!. With Marcelo Armstrong tours we visited two of Rio's Favela's Rocinha with a population of over 200,000 and the smaller Vila Canoas ( 3000 residents). It was fascinating insight into how Rio people live and the houses were amazing with several built on top of one another and lots of narrow passageways. The Favela's are self contained with shops and the majority of the inhabitants pay no rent or tax. The football match was a great experience especially considering the only match i'd seen live before was Watford vs Norwich!! The Maracana stadium is the biggest of its kind in the world holding nearly 200,000 people and was built in 1950 for the world cup. There were fireworks and smoke bombs going off all the time together with samba drums playing and hysterical cheering!

The time went reallly quickly in Rio and it was soon time to fly back to blighty. Back home to a mountain of post, high cost of living, job hunting and the worst financial crisis since the 1930's!! Luckily the weather wasn't too bad though despite having the worst summer for years and it was great to catch up with family and friends. However after a few weeks of watching bank and country bailouts, credit markets dry up and markets crash to record intra day lows I decided a beach on Greece was the best place to be and so headed off to Symi for the revised last stop of 2008......its not all doom and gloom British media!!! Symi is a small Island just north of Rhodes and with the mix of great Taverna's, bars, beaches and sun it was two weeks of guaranteed fun!!

Anyway seeing as this is the last blog I thought it would be interesting and fun to include some facts and reviews on the 7 1/2 months of travel...


Odd facts and figures

Number of

hotels stayed at: 58
flights taken: 30
hours spent in the air: 102
tubes of toothpast purchased: 8
hair cuts: 9
cheapest hair cut: Hoi An USD 2
bus journeys: 42
boat journeys: 18
days spent on beach: 76
things lost: Camera, sun glasses, 6 bottles of shower gel
different modes of transport: taxi, tuck tuck, boat, bus, elephant, truck, aeroplane, moto, rickshaw,
Country spend the longest - Ecuador 2 months
Country spent the shortest - Chile 2 days
Place spent the longest - (1) Quito (2) Sihanoukville (3) Melbourne
cheapest accomodation - Bamboo Island Cambodia USD 10
Most expensive hotel - Golden Tulip Rio USD 99


Favourite places


Hotels - (1) Somewhere Else - Ko Lanta (2) Nhi Nhi - Hoi An (3) Mohachal - Sihanoukville (4) Golden Tulip continental - Rio De Janeiro (5) Amazonas Quito

Bars/Pubs (1) Cherry Tree Melbourne (2) French Bar Sihanoukville (3) Before and Now Bar Hoi An (4) Le Pub Saigon (5) Excelsior Christchurch (6) Vapori Symi

Restuarants (1) Georgios Symi (2) Stokehouse Melbourne (3) Mick and Craigs Sihanoukville (4) Cyclo Hanoi

Countries (1) Ecuador (2) Cambodia (3) New Zealand (4) Laos

Cities (1) Saigon (2) Christchurch (3) Cuenca (4) Rio De Janeiro

Place (1) Galapagos (2) Sihanoukville (3) Ko Lanta (4) Peurto Lopez (5) Halong Bay

Bus Journey (1) Luang Prebang-Van Vieng (2) Franz Joseph -Lake Wanaka (3) Hue - Hoi An

Flight (1) London-Bangkok (2) Wellington-Christchurch (3) Sydney-Melbourne (4) Auckland - Santiago

Tour (1) Saigon-Phnon Penh (2) Sapa (3) Latacunga

Beach (1) Atacames Ecuador (2) Ko Lipe Thailand (3) Bamboo Island Sihanoukville

Day (1) 21.8.08 Quito (2) 1.8.08 Atacames (3) 26.3.08 Sihanoukville (4) 5.7.08 Galapagos (5) 2.3.08 Saigon (6) 7.8.08 Cayambe and Quito (7) 12.4.08 Melbourne

Most memorable moments in date order:

(1) Walking down Khao San road on 1st night and then sitting on beach in Ko Lanta after 1st week of being away watching the sun set.
(2) Feeding Wan the elephant bananas
(3) watching budhist monks perform an evening prayer ritual in a Chang Mai temple
(4) Watching the sun come up over the Mekong river and trying to cross the road in Hanoi for the first time
(5) getting the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa on my own travelling with a vietnamese family
(6) crossing the border into Cambodia via boat in an old boat and seeing all the local villages and people on the shore.
(7) the nightlife in Sihanoukville
(8) visiting the killing fields and S19 museum in Phnom Penh
(9) arriving in Melbourne and driving through the city with Pat then hitting the Cherry Tree pub and seeing Fiona and little cheeky Grace for the first time.
(10) seeing a crocodile up close for the 1st time
(11) snorkling on the great barrier reef and then hitting the nightlife of Cairns
(12) 6 seater plane ride over Mount Cook and holding the Super 14 trophy the day before the final
(13) seeing Saturn through a giant telescope
(14) meeting Mick and Sue in Napier and watching the England rugby team play the All Blacks in Auckland
(15) 1st day of trying to learn spanish
(16) snorkling with a sea lion in the Galapagos
(17) getting up close to a blue fotted booby in galapagos
(18) climbing cotopaxi at an altitude of 5000 metres
(19) whale watching in Peurto Lopez
(20) wandering around Cuenca city
(21) looking out over lake Quilotoa latacunga
(22) Meeting Marilu on Atacames beach
(22) Seeing the rows and rows of craft and other shopping goodies in Otavolo market
(23) Travelling by boat down the Rio Napo in the Amazon to the jungle lodge
(24) Getting the Teleferico and looking out over the view of Quito
(25) Seeing a football match in Rio
(26) Tucking into some Feta cheese stuffed peppers in Georgios restuarant Symi then walking down the Kali Strata to the Vapori bar.

I'm sure there's more but that's got to be the best of them. Well looking back it was an amazing and rewarding experience and I hope you've enjoyed the blogs and that they have inspired you to visit those places. For me it was all about the sense of freedom and fun, meeting some wonderful people, living a different lifestyle, experiencing different cultures, values, diversities and convictions. Also seeing some majestic scenary and sights and learning about the history of these countries from a different perspective. The memories will last forever (with the help of Travelblog.org and Snappy snaps!!) As Mark Twain put it

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover'........

Take care all

Rob

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