Week 7, 8 & 9: Rio and Iguazu

Finally we have an internet connection that doesn`t keep logging me off all the time.  A lot has happened in the last three weeks, so lets get started.

Rio de Janerio

Our stay in Rio was a bitter sweet one.  Our hotel was right on the Ipanema beach, we only had a couple of rainy days in the whole two weeks and we had a chance for the first time to sit back and relax. We didn`t see any crime and so far no dodgy payments on my card. On the flip side, there was a bit of a pretentious feel to it, which at times was a little uncomfortable.  After the first 5 days, the hotel locked us out of our room as they wanted us to pay for the first 5 days.  If it hadn`t been for expecting some important post we would have moved hotel there and then!  Anyway, we had a lot of good times and it is well worth a vist (We would recommend only a week or a few days).  Here are some of our highlights:

After the first day of being lazy and trying out the hotel bar on the beach front, we decided we should go and see something.  I really wish I had my camera with me!  We went for a wonder down the sea front and came across a lot of commotion.  Two groups of men, all of which were only wearing speedos, were having an argument in the road.  There must of been at least twenty of them.  The police turned up with large guns, one of which fired a shot in the air to break them up.  Not sure what the police thought they might be packing in their speedos, but it doesn`t bear thinking about.  I liked the idea they were fighting over a volley ball.  The rest of the day was fairly average until our taxi back crashed into a parked car trying to avoid someone else.  No one was hurt at all, but if you see a yellow taxi with a big black scrape down it, have a thought for the person who would have come back to a black car with a big yellow scrape down it.  Welcome to Rio!

The other moment I missed with the camera was a whole load of students dressed up for halloween, if i`d been giving out prizes, 1st prize would have gone to Ayrton Senna.

So here are a few of the sights we did actually have a camera for!

Christ the Redeemer - We went up to the Christ the Redeemer in the rack-and-pinnion which at some points is very steep.  We were a bit dissapointed to find an esculator and some lifts high up in the mountain!

There is a small chapel under the statue and just outside some candels that you can light.  Not real candels, but if you put a coin in the machine they`ll light up!

Centro - We wanted to go and see the cathedral in the centre, this is the building we would like Dev to comment on. The inside is much better than the outside!

Below: The lagre cone shaped Cathedral

We also went for a wonder around the Natural History museum.  In short, it said the Portuguese arrived, settled and didn`t treat the locals very well.  We didn´t take very good pictures here and Jo got a little bored!

Sugar Loaf - A hill that looks like a Sugar loaf, the area was also used for farming sugar cane.  Another good view, well worth the visit.

Us at the beach!

Iguazu Falls

 Wow, this is a must for any trip to south America.  We stayed on the Argentina side in the Shereton over looking the falls.  We landed on the Brazil side and got a taxi over the boarder. We loved it here so much we decided to stay an extra night!

Crossing the boarder to Argentina



Not sure how, but the hotel seemed to think we had just got hitched.  So half an hour after checking in a bottle of bubberly and cakes arrived! Yay!

The falls were amazing! Some of them were so huge that the spray drenched you if you went anywhere near them, it was like having a lovely cold shower. 

Our hotel was situated inside the park so we only had to pay once. The walks to the falls were not far at all. They had hundreds of different types of butterflies that just landed on you at every opportunity. Other wildlife such as lizards, racoons and birds were also seen roaming around the park. 

On the days that we did not walk around the falls we just ate a huge breakfast and lazed around the pool area and of course taking advantage of the hydro therapy aqua spa!

On our last night we decided to have a last hydro spa. We got a final special moment when we went out by the pool and saw loads of bats flying round in circles drinking out of the swimmng pool. This was the icing on the cake! We will uploaded a video of them soon.