Rio de Janeiro - our final destination!

We stayed just a few minutes walk from the famous Copacabana beach, so the first point of call was a stroll along the huge expanse of golden sand. It was early evening and the sun was setting, giving us a great opportunity for some photos. As we walked we kept coming across candles, flowers and bottles of champagne carefully arranged in the sand. Groups of people were singing, dancing and performing rituals while dressed all in white. We learnt that they were paying their respects to "Lemanja" - the sea goddess.

The next day, after a 'per-per-kilo' breakfast/lunch, we went off to explore Rio. An old tram took us up to the retro district of Santa Teresa, a mecca for Rio's artists and intellectuals. We took a few 'artistic' photos of our own as we wondered around the cobbled streets. Tourists are advised to stick to the main streets, as muggings are not uncommon, so we did just that while keeping an eye over our shoulder.

The following day and it's New Years Eve! We decided to spend the afternoon walking the length of Copacabana promenade and on to its neighbour Ipanema, which has an equally impressive stretch of perfect golden sand. Like Copacabana, Ipanema's beach was stunning, perhaps even more so. It was busy, so we climbed to a high vantage point and took in the amazing sight of the packed beach, Thousands of red sun parasols lined the expanse of sand, with a backdrop high-rise hotels before the land rises into tropical rainforest hills.

That night it was time to party - Rio style. It's tradition to wear white on New Years Eve, so that we did and headed up to the hostel bar to join the action. We teamed up with some drinking partners from Sweden and Oz. A few drinking games later, donning our shorts and havaianas, we headed down to Copacabana beach to join the "Réveillon" party. The 4km of sand was packed with hundreds of thousands of people partying in the hot summer evening. Various stages provided live music and DJ sets all along the beach. We were expecting to be crushed in like tinned sardines, but we managed to find a great spot near one of the big stages with plenty of dancing space! The booze flowed and midnight arrived with a spectacular firework display. Massive barges just off the beach provided the fantastic pyrotechnics. The night was rounded off with a swim in the ocean! A brilliant Brazilian New Years Eve party was had by all.

After a day recovering from the wild celebrations, we continued exploring the city. Next on the agenda was a visit to a shanty town. The slums of Brazilian cities, "favelas", are often built on steep hillsides. Comprised of thousands of shacks, each built by hand out of just about what ever people can find, are packed into a tight maze of chaotic unofficial city neighbourhood. It's far too dangerous for tourists to wander these favelas alone, so we joined a tour to one of Rio's largest - "Rocinha". On the back of moto-taxis, we were raced up to the top via the one and only tarmac road. We joined our tour guide and were instructed not to take any photographs until we were told, as we were about to pass the "lookouts". These are young boys armed with guns, hired to defend a drugs territory - and they don't like to be photographed! We disappeared down a tiny alleyway to begin the tour. Walking the dirty little narrow passageways was scary but eye-opening. There was an undercurrent of unease as we walked the make-shift pathways but our guide told us we were perfectly safe as long as we did exactly as we were told! Most of the buildings had water and electricity, which had been illegally tapped from the grid. We were careful not to trip over the mass of cables and pipes and especially careful of the streams of open sewage. Decades of litter was everywhere, but most people in the favela welcomed us with a friendly smile.

We finished the day with a visit to "Sugar Loaf Mountain" - a vertical rock rising from the sea offering fantastic views across the city. As the sun went down, we got a great sight of Rio by night. Off in the distance, Christ the Redeemer was impressively illuminated on top of his 700m high mountain, overlooking the city.

Visiting Chris the Redeemer, one of the seven wonders of the world, was the plan for our final day in South American. As it was the peak of Brazilian holiday season, it was busy. After an hour of queuing, we finally got to the top of Corcovado mountain, the home of the big man himself. Jesus was massive at 40m (130ft) and stood open armed over-looking the city. Just as impressive was the view - sprulled amongst dozens of lush green mountains, Rio de Janeiro was an awesome sight. A truly beautiful city and fantastic finale to our 5 month trip.

Check out 'Brazil - Rio de Janeiro' at http://gallery.me.com/peterjprice/102053