Well sadly it was time to get going from the incredible city that is Rio de Janeiro (thats Hio de Janeiro). I have seen few cities that are set in such spectacular natural surroundings – the mountains, the sea, the fantastic public beaches beaches, Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf mountain, cool Samba parties on hot Sunday nights, people out jogging along the bay, having a beer at dusk on Ipanema beach…it is pretty special.

We had a great time staying with Renata (That is also with an H, I found out after all this time!), my workmate from a few years ago, who showed us around and took us to nice parties that we would never find on our own. Too bad we had a day cut short from our stay! Obrigado!

We even started to learn about how to deal with the taxis here because, as we found out, they will try to rip you off if they think they can. In the end it was a two way street – the taxi guy who drove us to Sta Teresa for lunch almost had us for 35 Realis, but Sanni held firm and handed him a tenner and told him that was all he was gonna get despite his abuse. To make up the imbalance, I decided to try to rip our taxi off in the evening by refusing to pay the meter fare (he said a tenner but traffic was so bad that it ended up being 18). But when he followed me down the street complaining and sounded a bit like my old workmate Fernando, I felt sorry for him and paid the rest.

 But it was time to start our organised tour, first stop Paraty…