We were awoken by our alarm early in the morning and after slowly getting up and ready, went down for breakfast. On asking the reception we were told are tour was now one hour later as the 8.15am bus was full. This was annoying as we could have slept longer but we had our breakfast and then waited in the room.

The time came for our tour and we boarded the van with a few others from our hotel. We then picked up some other people, and ended up with a mixed group.

Our first stop on the tour was the statue of Christ. We made our way up into the hills, the view was good although it was cloudy and a little misty. On arriving we were faced with a pretty long line but our group was ushered to the front and we were taken by minibus to the base of the statue. From here we walked up the steps to the statue. It was really big in person, as it was 30m high. The position high up on the hill also made it a great view point. It was really busy but we still managed to get some good photos.

We came down to find the mist rolling in and were glad we had made it just it time. While we waited for the bus to go back down we made friends with an some English Indians who were on the bus. They were cousins and one was an ex-consultant of Accenture that Shivani recognised.

We then boarded the bus and headed to our next stop which was the Maracana football stadium. We passed through Santa Teresa on the way which was supposed to be a nice neighbourhood but didn't seem that great to me. The stadium was closed for refurbishment for the world cup so we just stopped outside the gates where there was a statue of the 1958 world cup winning captain.

After a couple of pictures we got back on the bus and headed to the the location where the samba schools do their carnival performances. It wasn't that exciting to look at but we were shown to a room where they had some of the costumes and tried some on. The costumes were pretty elaborate and it was fun trying them on.

We next headed to the cathedral in downtown. This was a modern construction that was shaped like a cone and had huge stain glass windows. It was pretty impressive but after a few pictures we moved on to get lunch.

We were taken to a buffet restaurant in Copacabana. There was a long queue again so we had to wait for a while. When we got in we had a choice from quite a large buffet and a BBQ section. The food was okay and we were really hungry so had a couple of plates.

After we were finished it was time to head to Sugar Loaf mountain. The ride over was pretty short but when we arrived there was a huge queue. Our guide couldn't get us to the front as the supervisor was on duty so we had to wait. It took a long time but eventually we got the cab to ride up to the first mountain. When we got there we found more long queues to get up to the next mountain. We had a quick walk round and saw them setting up for the new years party they were holding there. It looked pretty good and they had a live band that sounded good too.

We then joined the queue to go up to the top. We were joined by Rashim and Shika and got a beer while we waited. We eventually got to the top and had some pretty good views although the Christ was covered in cloud. It was a shame it wasn't sunny otherwise I'm sure the scene would have been better. We took a few pictures anyway and were amused by a guy doing some funny poses.

It was now pretty late and we had to get back down. They queues were pretty long and we were pretty tired of it all. Rash had come up with a plan to skip the queue and we decided to do it. We pretended to take pictures and then went in the door people were exiting from. It worked well and we got down saving some queuing time.

It was now the end of the tour and we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel as we didn't want to wait for the rest of the group to get down from the mountain. We arranged to meet Rash and Shika in the evening as they were going out in Lapa, before heading back to the hotel for a disco nap.

We managed to get a little sleep before our alarm woke us to get ready to go out. We took showers and got dressed before texting Rash to meet up. When we left the hotel it was coming up to midnight and we met the Italian guys who had been on our tour earlier. They were going to Lapa too and we joined them taking the metro.

The metro was pretty busy and full of people going out. It was pretty wierd to be going out so late but that is how they did it here. We came to our stop and on getting out met Shika who was with a big group from her hostel. We joined them and headed towards the party. We walked over to where the arches were and were faced with a massive street party. It looked really cool and had a good buzz. We walked over and got some beers an started to enjoy the party.

It was really busy with locals and tourists and we moved around the area getting a feel for it. We walked up and down the main street, where there were a lot of bars and parties happening. Some of it spilled out on the streets and the group we were with were pretty rowdy and fun and got involve with it all. There was some pretty funny dancing going on and everyone was enjoying themselves.

After a while we went back to the stalls to get more drinks. Shivani got a nice drink with passion fruit and I got a huge caprihna that was really strong. We then went back near the main street and hung out chatting to other people from the group and a few random people who came up to us.

It was quite late now and I finished my drink and was getting a bit hungry. I thought I would go for a burger but on checking my pocket found my wallet was missing. I looked around but I had obviously been pickpocketed. This was not the best area and we had been warned about it. It hadn't felt anything and couldn't think when it happened. I felt really s*** and we had lost a fair bit of money, my debit card and drivers license and Shivanis credit card. We hadn't needed all that stuff so I felt really stupid losing it all.

We luckily still had a few reals of loose change and Shika said she would make sure we got home ok. It was late now and the group was ready to go home. We walked over to the main road and one of the Brazilian guys found a mini van going our way. We all bundled in, it was a tight fit and got on our way.

The van sped through the streets and we were quickly in Copacabana where we dropped the others off. Shika kindly gave us some money and then we got dropped of in Ipenema close to our hotel. We walked back and when we got to the room cancelled our cards before getting ready for bed. It had been a long day and we had learnt a good if not too expensive lesson. 'Welcome to south America' as I was told.