Rio De Janeiro: 28 November - 3 December 2011

And so we've reached the last stop on our trip: Rio De Janeiro.

Until recently it had never occurred to us that the weather in Rio would be anything other than bright sunshine. Then we started hearing stories from people who had been to Rio recently and had seen the city shrouded in cloud and fog. It wasn't too much of a surprise then to see rain streaking down the bus windows as we arrived.

The 16 hour bus had been delayed a couple of extra hours during the night, so it was lunchtime by the time we checked into our very nice hotel. We were on the beach front and our 20th floor room had an amazing view along Leblon and Ipanema beaches. Now we just needed the weather to improve!

We went for a look around in the drizzle: our hotel was in Leblon, a high end residential area. Although there weren't many beach-front bars, the main street two blocks back from the beach had loads of cafes, restaurants and shops. Both Leblon and Ipanema are located on a thin strip of land with the ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other. The narrow channel that connects the lagoon with the sea is the division between the two neighbourhoods and is the only thing that divides the beach that runs for 3-4kms or so up to the headland around which is Copacabana.

The cloud started to lift in the evening and we found that we also had a view of the Christ The Redeemer statue stood on the Corcovado mountain overlooking the city. It is brightly lit at night and although it isn't small at more than 30 metres high, it didn't look very big stood on top of the high mountain overlooking the tower blocks of the city.

The following morning we were counting our blessings as the day was bright, albeit a little overcast. We took the opportunity to head over to the Corcovado. The clouds were breaking as we drove through town in a taxi and by the time we had bought tickets for the tram that climbs up the steep hill to the statue, it was turning into a glorious day. The trams run every 20 minutes, but a lot of people were taking advantage of the good weather and we had to wait for more than an hour for a seat.

We emerged behind the statue and climbed up until we were stood beneath Jesus' feet. The view was stupendous - everything that it's cracked up to be. We could see the beaches laid out below us on one side and the hills, including the iconic Sugar Loaf Mountain, climbing away on the other side. In between was the lagoon and the city, with clear views of the Maracana stadium, the new cathedral and other landmarks. We hit the famous sands of Rio in the late afternoon for a spot of tan-topping.

The good weather remained for the following couple of days as well. We took a Favela Tour for a closer look at this side of Rio. The population of the city is around 9 million; 20% of which live in the 950 or so favelas dotted around the city. We would visit two favelas in the half day tour, the first being Rocinha; Rio's biggest favela and home to around 70,000 people.

The term favela is given to the unplanned communities that have grown up on public land throughout Rio, most commonly on the steep hillsides around the edges of the city. As these communities are on public land, the people who live there do not need to purchase the land and have built their homes themselves, taking advantage of every square foot of land in more and more intricate communities as more people have arrived in the city in an attempt to earn a living. The government lets all this happen as it allows them to meet their constitutional obligation to house all Brazilian citizens.

Rocinha had been in the news two weeks ago, being the latest favela to have been 'pacified' by the Brazilian police. In the ongoing battle against drugs and ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, the authorities have instigated a policy to remove the drug lords from these parts of the city. Various favelas have now been 'pacified' by a permanent armed police presence that has, hopefully, greatly reduced the drug business in Rio and should facilitate more integration of the favelas into the city. It seems to have happened peacefully so far with neither side wanting confrontation, particularly now that it is stated policy that the police presence will remain rather than being a temporary raid. With the favela apparently released from the grasp of drug lords, there are already some improvements in public services starting to drip into the community such as increased garbage disposals, and more companies looking at commerce in the area. On the flip side for the local residents, the electricity and satellite TV companies have already been in, discovering numerous innovative and illegal hook-ups to services. No more free Sky TV!

The favela was a long way from the 'shantytown' or 'slum' that you might imagine. There are no shacks, the main road that snakes up the hill on which Rocinha sits is paved; the buildings are all brick and some are on a huge scale - we visited a 7 storey building that had great views down over Rio. As our guide said: this might be the only city in the world where the poor people live above the rich ones. There are businesses and shops, electricity, water and drainage. It's obviously a poor area, but feels very permanent and planned despite it's haphazard construction. Pretty amazing really and very interesting.

We also visited a small more typical favela, home to around 2,000 people which has always been a relatively peaceful community and not had any of the drug issues that you see in the news. The favela again clings to the edge of a hillside on the opposite side of the road from some pretty impressive gated houses. The contrast is quite amazing. We visited a small community school and were led around the rabbit warren of alleyways and stairways that wind their way between the buildings.

That afternoon we hit the beaches again, walking along Leblon and Ipanema beaches before hitting the shops. It was the day before Sue's birthday and we wanted to do something nice. Hiking boots are probably not the rage in Rio's restaurants so it was time to pick up a few new duds.

The big day dawned bright and beautiful. So after a champagne breakfast (or rather a breakfast buffet followed by a bottle of reasonably priced Prosseco), we hailed a cab and set out for the Sugar Loaf mountain - Rio's other iconic hilly destination. There were far fewer people here and the cable cars that run up Urca hill first before then proceeding up Sugar Loaf itself were only part full. Sugar Loaf mountain (so called because it apparently resembles the tin that a sugar loaf is baked in) is across the city from the Corcovado, so offers a different view, towering over Copacabana and looking back across town to the Christ The Redeemer. It was a beautiful day and a nice place to spend a while admiring the view.

We hadn't set foot on Copacabana beach yet, so that was the next stop. The wind was picking up a little, so our sunbathing became a little uncomfortable as a result of the sand blowing along the beach, forcing us to retreat to the small beach bars that line the pavement and the edge of the sand. Having travelled around the world paying over the odds for glasses of wine, the birthday girl seems to have discovered a taste for beer in the last couple of weeks, so we enjoyed a couple of cold ones while watching the various football and volleyball games taking place on the beach.

We returned to the hotel for a siesta before cracking open another bottle of fizz while getting ready for our night out. We took a cab across town to the neighbourhood of Lapa where there are clubs and bars aplenty, complete with live samba bands. We had a nice meal on a balcony overlooking the packed dance floor, admiring some of the amateur samba on show, and laughing at some of the other interpretations. The birthday caiprinha's started to take effect though and we headed for home at a pretty respectable hour, a few hours before dawn.

Our final day in Rio was a bit of a washout in more ways than one - the rain lashing the windows and waves hammering the beach didn't make us feel too guilty about staying in and nursing our hangovers!

During the sunshine though, Rio is a spectacular and beautiful city and we were so pleased to have had some good weather to fully appreciate it. A very worthy place for our last stop and a fantastic end to a truly amazing adventure.

See you very very soon!

Dan & Sue xx