Her Name is Rio and She Dances on the Sand

We land in Rio de Janerio and head off to our iconic hotel, Copacabana Palace, situated in the heart of Copacabana Beach. In fact, our room overlooked this world famous stretch of sand. The hotel is magnificent and on one floor there are a series of pictures of the famous who have stayed here, from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (who filmed Flying Down to Rio in 1933) to Roger Moore (remember the cable car stunt with Jaws in Moonraker?) to Lady Diana. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to add our picture to the others!

Our stay in this city was to be a relaxing, sun-kissed finale to our 180 days adventure; the only twist was that the weather was, well, pretty disappointing. It rained. It was windy. We saw the sun for about a couple of hours on our last day when we did sit on the beach. But we made the best of it with a trip to see Christ the Redeemer at the top of Corcovado mountain, which is, even in the must, an incredible sight. We got there by cable train and even though we did not have clear weather, you still have great views of the city. Following that, we then took the cable car to Sugar Loaf Mountain, but only got halfway, as the rain absolutely belted it down, and the only reason you go to Sugar Loaf Mountain is to see the stretch of Copacabana Beach in full. So, off to lunch which is a Brazilian meat fest! We went to Fogo de Chao, which is a churrascaria, that is basically an all you can eat meat restaurant that is popular in Brazil. Waiters come round with meat hanging on skewers and you have what you want. So we had umpteeen types of beef, pork, chicken and boar. Even chicken hearts. Very good, but very full.

That evening we went to a theatre in the city to see Ginga Tropical, which was a marvellous show of dancing and singing, showcasing all of the cultures of Brazil over the centuries. The costumes of both the men and women were spectacular and we reckon they must have had 30 changes of costume during the show!

Our final day was spent on Copacabana Beach, just lazing and people watching, although a fair bit of time was spent saying ‘no’ to the beach venders.

We then head off to the airport and take our flight back home. We’ve had 180 days around the world and had a memorable and fantastic time - dare we say, where next?