Rio de Janeiro, last stop of our little South American tour.

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The holidays are not over, but South America is touching to an end for us, at least for 2010. Last stop, Rio...back to some proper sun. I first came here 8 years ago on my first round-the-world. At the time, on my own, I had the chance to witness Brazil wining the World Cup, enjoying the match on a massive screen on Copacabana Beach, what a souvenir!

This time, we are in Rio for 2 days and 2 nights with Ma'ri. The highlight of the stay for me was our afternoon spent in Santa Teresa. On the advise of our one of my great friends living in Paris...yes Christophe, it's you...we decided to spend some time there. First, you take a really fun tram up to this boho romantic area. The place is full of little restaurants and bars. The tram ride is even more fun when you hang on the outside as the locals do, just make sure you don't get hit by anything...walls, posts, cars, etc... We stopped for a drink at the Hotel Santa Teresa. That was a complete discovery, stop in the street, thinking, how, what is behind these stairs, reached a very nice lounge bar...to discover after that this is actually a Relais & Chateaux hotel...warning, this is an extremely nice place if you intend on planing a honeymoon in Rio...but the price tag comes with the romance! If you spend two nights in Rio...and have a substantial wallet, spend one night here and one night somewhere else...Fasano...anyone?

We were staying in a less fancy, and seriously less picy place, nevertheless with a nice view on the Ocean. One day was also spent exploring Rio on foot. I'm not really in love with most of the city. Hopefully the 2016 Olympics will bring a serious lifting to the city, this old lady needs a serious botox shot! And yes, we did go to the Corcovado. Amazing views...way too crowded for us, it was the last day of the winter holidays in Brazil....but even with the crowds, the place is always impressive. The first time I visited it, 30 minutes after Brazil won the World Cup, I could ear the all city partying at the time.

We did not go to the Sugar Loaf. We had left it for the last morning...but hey, it was cover with clouds, and were not ready to waste money to land in the middle of a cloud, after all this is winter in Rio!. But we did something I never did, landed at Santo Dumont right in the middle of the city. It's impressive to see the planes landing there while you are on the Corcovado, it's even more impressive to be in the plane.

The best part of our stay was by far Santa Teresa....to do again on our next stop to Rio...one day...

We are back on the old Continent, this time with Leslie. Our little South American adventure is over for now. I never spent a full month in South America, and what a month it was.

We are now running very late on entries as I did not have any time to blog the last few days. the last few days were simply amazing...maybe or surely because Leslie is finally back with us.

So with love from three of us, from a very sunny place...see you soon. And our next South Amercan adventures...coming in 2012!

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