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Published: October 17th 2008
Hola chicos and chicas!
Berti and I are at the end of our last day in Rio de Janeiro, and finally the sun made an appearance!! Our long journey to New Zealand (via Buenos Aires again) begins tomorrow, and we are literally so excited, we cannot concentrate on anything!!
Since Monday, we have been wandering around the city waiting for a clear day to be able to see the magnificent sights and enjoy the stunning beaches of Rio. It has rained every single day!! Unfortunately, we got to Friday and still no sun. We decided that we better take a trip to the Sugarloaf mountain before we ran out of time, but were disppointed not to be able to see a view of Christ´s statue - (covered by cloud!). We awoke the next day to find bright blue sky, so quickly jumped into a taxi straight for the ´Trem de Corcovado´- the train that would take us up the Tijuca mountain to see the most famous landmark in Rio - Christ´s statue. We were not disappointed - it was truly awesome. Overpowering and slightly eerie, the statue overlooks the entire city, and on a clear day, like yesterday, you
can see for miles. Today, our final full day here, we hesitantly peered through the curtains as we woke up, hoping to finish off our stay with a day of clear blue sky, and we were rewarded for our patience! On went the bathing suits, as we (ran!) to the beach, to get our spot on the beach near Posto 9 - the famous patch of sand where anyone who is anyone hangs out! Unfortunately, we massively stood out from the crowd, as I was not wearing a 'fio dental' (thong) and Berti was not wearing tiny Speedos!!! Seriously, the amount of thongs and speedos on Ipanema beach was truly horrifying. It seems all shapes and sizes, men and women in this city like to thoroughly flaunt themselves. Still we had a great day laughing and pointing at all the sights we witnessed...I think Berti is still traumatised....
Sorry this is only a short entry - the next one will be a biggy and we promise to bring you lots of photos of NZ!!
-A quick update, we couldn't seem to add the video in our Rio internet cafe, so we are actually now in New Zealand, and
still cannot seem to load this video of the sights from the statue but we will try to bring it to you next time, and thought we'd better upload without it!
Anyway, having spent one night as zombie's recovering from our jet-lag in Auckland, we have now picked up our campervan!! It's amazing - and complete with bed, table, kitchen, microwave, cooker, toilet, shower, and hot water!!!!! We have driven ourselves 2 and a half hours down to the Waitomo caves!! Albert has been driving (which is a little tricky as it's a right hand drive and he has to drive English-style!!) (and it's a massive van!!). However, he has picked it up really quickly and we are loving driving through the beautiful countryside going wherever we want, whenever we want... We have now parked 'Eleanor' (think Gone in 60 Seconds for you movie buffs) in an incredible camp-park in Waitomo. We didn't realise that New Zealand caters so heavily for tourists in campervans, that they have amazing and cheap camp-parks in every location, complete with power points, swimming pools, kitchen, internet, laundry...it's perfect! We are visiting the famous glow-worm filled caves tomorrow, and have decided instead of going
on a walking tour through them, we are going to go black water rafting through them instead (basically white water rafting in a dark cave...!!) so wish us luck! We will update you on our NZ adventures v v soon, so much love to everyone.
A and A xxxxxxxx
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Mother of the R.B
non-member comment
RIO !!!!
Fabulous photos guys, the statue of chirst was breathtaking - Luke would LOVE to see that (being a good catholic boy) Luke and I are loving tracking your journey on a map, a great geography lesson for Luke and regular chances for me to be "sick with jealousy" Ha Ha !!! Not too sure about you two becoming Gypsies though ? You could always read fortunes or sell heather if you get short of cash ? Take care, be safe - lots of love ! Mother of the R.B x