Rio de Janiero - our last stop

And so after six and a half months, 4 continents and too many places to mention we had arrived at our final stop before heading back to normality.

The flight from Mendoza took us via Buenos Aires and a 1.5 hour bus transfer across the city to the international airport...I just wish they'd made that clear when we booked the tickets. It did mean we saw a little bit of BA out of the window though.

Arriving at our hostel late at night we fell into bed with relief. The next day we woke to a fantastic breakfast and what would have been matching views of Rio and Christ the Redeemer except for the large mass of grey cloud which blocked the surrounding mountains.

Having worked out which way we needed to go, without the aid of a map, we headed down into the centre of the pretty suburb of Santa Teresa to get our bearings. We found a lovely little place with cobbled streets and quaint restaurants and cafes. Fortified by 'the best coffee of the trip so far' (quote David) we steeled our nerves, took some deep breaths and caught a local bus back up the hill to our hostel.

The following day dawned bright and clear with awesome views of the surrounding mountains. Our hostel was well placed to allow us to tackle the 1.5 hour walk up to the Christ the Redeemer, which, as with so many important statues and monuments on our trip, was covered in scaffolding (the cry 'it must be important its covered in scaffolding' has come to be something of a motto).

While impressive, I personally think it looks better from down below, though the thousands of people at the top probably didn't agree with me.David did though!

Catching the bus back into Santa Teresa (we were old hands by now) we enjoyed a delicious lunch in one of the many cafes before tackling the next form of public transport, the VW bus. These are old VW vans which career up and down the narrow streets, taking on as many passengers as they can possibly squeeze in, even when you think it's impossible. It was certainly an experience.

Heading onto the metro we found a shopping centre and picked up too many pairs of Havaianas (flip flops for the uninitiated) to mention, much to the amusement of the shop staff.

Our last full day saw us hitting Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, just to say that we had seen them. It is great to see such a large stretch of beach in the middle of a city, though David at least was a little disappointed by the lack of 'beautiful' people as promised by the Lonely Planet. We consumed a couple of beers while people watching, particularly enjoying the spectacle of the biggest sport on the beach which seemed to be a skilful combination of beach volleyball and football.

That evening the clouds came in quickly and we saw lightening on the horizon. In no time at all the most impressive thunderstorm we had experienced was upon us and it just didn't stop all night. Having put paid to our plan to enjoy a night out in Santa Teresa we donned our raincoats and joined the others from our hostel in the local restaurant at the end of the road, taking a towel with us to dry ourselves off a bit.

We thought Sunday would be a long day spent waiting around for our 22.30 flight home, but in fact in turned out to be one of the nicest days we'd spent in a while. After taking the time to catch up on some blogs and tie up some loose ends we headed into Santa Teresa looking for a leisurely lunch. This turned out to be a good choice as the place was full of locals enjoying long lunches which gave it a lovely feel.

Having decided what to order (although the menu was all in Portuguese so it was more of a guess), we immediately changed our minds as we saw the food delivered to the table next door and simply asked for whatever they had. This turned out to be one of the best meals of the trip and a great way to finish what has been an absolutely amazing six and a half months.

Next stop London!