Wednesday 23rd to Thursday 31st August 2006: BRASIL, Rio De Janeiro

After a twelve hour bus ride we arrived in Rio De Janeiro (aka The Marvellous City) humming the tunes of `Copacabana´ and `The Girl from Ipanema´ very excited to be staying here for one week and eager to experience all that Rio has to offer. We checked into The Crab Hostel, one block from Ipanema Beach but on our arrival we were immediately disappointed as our double room was absolutely tiny, it just about fit a double bed and the partition walls were not fitted to the window properly so you could see into the next room and vice versa and could hear everything too! Having walked around Ipanema and had dinner there on our first night we realised that Ipanema was not our sort of place (far too expensive for us on our travellers budget) so we stayed only one night at The Crab Hostel and left Ipanema the next day for Copacabana and another hostel, Rio Backpackers. Arriving in Copacabana and at the hostel we were instantly cheered as this was a much livelier place to be, lots of travellers and the most amount of English people we have encountered in our entire trip! It was a great place to stay and meet other travellers and the staff at the hostel were incredibly helpful and knowledgable and the hostel arranged activities every night so there was always something to do.

Our week in Rio was jam packed and there was not much time here for sitting around and relaxing as there was just so much to see and do. The only downside to our stay (apart from the expensive of the City!) was the weather which was incredibly changeable; one day it was 36oC with glorious sunshine and the next 16oC and continual rain! The weather really reminded us of home! Therefore, the good weather days were saved for visits to the places that needed good weather, i.e. Corcovado (Jesus Christ Statue) and Pao Do Azucar (Sugar Loaf) which left us with no good weather days left to actually get to the beach for sunbathing and swimming which was a shame but as we`ve had a lot of beach time during our honeymoon we weren`t too disappointed!

Our time in Rio was made extra special by meeting up with Celina´s German cousin, Anja, who is currently studying and living in Rio. Recently we have been feeling increasingly homesick so it was such a nice surprise and coincidence that we were able to meet up with Anja and her boyfriend Rubens. We enjoyed two dancing nights out with Anja and Rubens; the first was spent taking our first Samba lesson (great fun!) and the second watching the traditional Brasilian dance, Forro, at the local nightclub where Anja and Rubens normally go to dance. We were really pleased to have experienced these dance nights out as this is something we would never have done had we not met up with our `local´ relatives! We were also able to stay at Anja and Rubens´ flat (which has fantastic views of Sugar Loaf) on our last day and night in Rio, which was a lovely treat and as this day was a sunny day Celina & Anja were able to do some sunbathing on the roof terrace whilst catching up on the past year and a half since they last saw each other.

On Thursday afternoon we said our goodbyes to Anja & Rubens and headed for the bus station to take our next bus to the border with Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay where we would visit the biggest waterfalls in the world, Foz Do Igazu.

The Emsden Cousins: Anja & Celina

The beautiful view of Sugar Loaf from Anja & Rubens roof terrace