MORE GALAPAGOS CUTIES!!!!

Here are some more galapagos animals....because i think they~re so FANTASTIC!!!!

SEA LION IN THE BOAT!















STARFISH (with our guide and skipper Carlos!














RED SALLY LIGHTFOOT CRAB













SMILING TORTOISE














GALAPAGOS GREGGKE TORTOISE!!!!!!














SEA LION and BABE!














PINK PELICAN!













MARINE IGUANA














LAND IGUANA












Lots of love from us! xxx

SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN and THE BEAUTIFUL VIEW OF RIO!!!

From the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain you can see Copacobana beach! It~s the one in the far distance...but the closer beach looks really cute hey!
















AND...This is..you guessed it..us at the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain! Doesnt it get boring seeing the same people in all these pics.............!

Day 285

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, South America

We were up early to get to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain before the tourists busses came in. We~d arranged the taxi to come and get us..and drop us off! No dealing with hostel tours this time! (It cost 11 reais to get to the base of the mountain!)

It was 9am.

And we managed to get on the cable car (R70 for two) before it started swarming with gringo~s!! (who do we think we are..carioca~s now! haha!)

And...it was such a beautiful view!

We took this pic of Christ the Redeemer at the first level.....













And then, this one, on the top. Christ the Redeemer is behind that puff of cloud sitting on the top of Corcovado Mountain in the far distance!!!!














That~s how fast the white puffy clouds loomed in! Within 20 minutes we had a total change of cloud cover..one minute it was blue, the next white!

On clear days you can see the statue from the Sugar Loaf Mountain and it looks quite spectacular!

It was just so beautiful from the top.... We saw sea eagles flying around..ships, bridges, islands and beaches...

I love this cactus pic, overlooking one of the little islands...the cactus just seem like they~re perched on the ledges of hte mountains!!!!!

CHRIST THE REDEEMER!

View from the top!











Day 284

Rio de Janeiro

Exciting news! This morning we booked with Lorenzo to go to see Christ the Redeemer!

Now the reason why this is such an adventure is because we~ve been waiting all week for perfect visibility..because it~s not uncommon for this massive statue to be covered in clouds making it become quite hidden.

Today had brilliant visibility so we booked for 4pm..

It was going to cost 35 reais each. That included a guide up there.

So we had the whole day to mooch around and wait...

First thing we had breakfast and while we were sitting at our table in the lounge cum dining room Lucas, one of the characters of the hostel, came slumbering down the spiral staircase..hair all cocked up..and looking quite the worse for wear. He had partied hard last night because today he was leaving. Greg~s become a somewhat mentor type father figure for him over the past week while he~s been searching for an apartment here in Rio..and it~ll be sad in a way to see him go. Funny how you get attached to people so quickly while you~re travelling..even the nutcases like Lucas!

Then we went for a walk around Botafoga..picked up our laundry (they did it for us at a minimal charge) and found out there is a very colourful market just behind our hostel.

Our hostel is located on a cobbly stoned street and it~s full of hostels..all gated up...(press a bell to get in and out) and so there are people wandering all over the place. At the hostel next to us there is a bay window where two little dogs lay...they~re so cute!

There~s also a little kid that is there every day...he seems to get sent outside the gate of his home by his parents for being a little devil...we see him most days wailing and begging to get back inside!

Further up the street kids are playing soccer..and when we turn left we hit the main street where the beach is..and there are street stalls all along, until you arrive at the Botafoga Praia Shopping Mall.

To the left from our street, and left again, is a street of restaurants on the street...which are open at all hours...and this is where the Favela kids trapse up and down selling anything and everthing..from peanuts to scarves to trinkets and lollies. One litte girl just had a xmas box with a slot for money and i noticed locals just gave her food instead of money which i thought was a good idea.

I get really sucked in by these kids...and the kids from Peru as well...consequently i have a range of little things they~ve given me for a small donation.

4pm came quickly, as it seems to here, and the taxi was waiting to take us up to Christ the Redeemer....

He put his metre on for some reason..and when he dropped us off there he said he~d pick us up on the nine..we thought he meant nine oclock but it turned out he meant forty five minutes...things really do get lost in translation here!!

We went up to the Corcovado mountain, which is in the Tijuca Forest National Park. The guide took off in his taxi...

The statue, which is a symbol of Christ overlooks the the whole city...and it really is massive!!!! No one would forget their faith with that overlooking in reminder!!!

Christ the Redeemer means, in Portuguese, Cristo Redentor, and it~s a stature of Jesus which stands 39.6 metres tall! It~s quite awesome really! It weighs 700 tons!

Here~s Greg! With outstretched arms...hehe

















We tried to find out where it came from, thinking it was a gift, but as the guide took off and no one seemed to know, we were left to do our own research. We found out the idea had been tossed around since the the 1800~s when Pedro Maria boss (a catholic priest) wanted to erect a large monument for Rio. It got forgotten when Brasil became a republic but it the idea was reopened when the Archdiocese for Rio made a proposal and got the people of Brasil to donate by holding a ~monument week~.

The statue of jesus with open arms was chosen! Hietor da Silva designed it and Paul Landowski was the sculptor. It was made of reinforced concrete and cost $250,000.

In 1931 it was unveiled!

And it~s been a glorified and important religious monument attracting tourists to visit it ever since.

The view from the mountain is just incredible!!! We really saw how beautiful the city of Rio is from up there!














The guide, that wasn~t a guide, slash taxi driver, came to get us 45minutes later...and we noticed the metre had added another 20 rheais....

And by the time we got home..the metre read 53 reai~s...

And we owed the hostel 70 reais for the tour!!

We felt a bit ripped off..and decided TOMORROW...when we go up to Sugar Loaf Mountain we~ll just get our own taxi and walk back!

You learn as you go i guess...

RELAXING IN RIO TODAY (and a whinge!)

This is just down the street from where we~re staying..see the Christ the Redeemeer statue right at the top of Corcovado hill in Rio..it~s just looms from every place in Rio!















Botofoga Beach! Just down the end of our street!














Day 283

Botafogo, Rio

Decided to have a change for dinner last night...had Frango Milenesse instead of Frango asada, which we~ve had, can you believe, for the last THREE nights....haha...and it turned out to be chicken battered!

Aren~t we such devils?

Today we did a really exciting thing..and went SHOPPING!!!!! And this is to get into a place where it is cool as much as anything! The heat here is stifling!

There~s this huge shopping centre near where we~re staying, called Praia Botafogo Shopping, and we went up and up and up..(7 floors) and found a big food market there..so that~s where we~re going tomorrow! Didn~t buy anything (had nothing to buy!) but it was really great just looking at everything..and what they didn~t have wasn~t worth having! (except they didn~t have vegemite, which i~m craving!)

Vicki, from the hostel told me vegetables in Portuguese is legumes and a salad is ensalada...and hot sauce is picante..so now i know what to order!

It~s interesting watching the young people at the hostel...they are so feral!

At breakfast..they touch, sniff, and eat in the weirdest fashion! And eat cereal out of cups instead of the bowls..And they put their feet up on the table! Gosh..was i like that? (no!) Being at hostels, we~ve learnt a lot more about kids when they~re on holiday, living away from home!

They have cocktail nights about every second night..Lorenzo serves them..and these kids know how to party! They dont seem to go out anywhere either..they~re there when we leave, and they~re there when we arrive home..just lounging around the place...i wonder what they~re doing in Rio. Greg says it~s because it~s so hot, they stay in..and at night they go and party!

The lack of our own private bathroom is getting to me...we can~t get to them when we want to..to brush our teeth, to wash our hands, to go to the loo or to shower. Grr..and they leave it such a mess! I won~t tell you what i found hanging in the shower yesterday morning..ew. Gross.

I guess we~re destined to be at the hostels for the rest of our trip tho..it~s either live at the ritz and not do any sightseeing..or see everything and live in dive~s. We~ve chosen the later.

We haven~t seen any aussies here..but a lot of american french and german..all around 25. We have met a couple of oldies like us, so we~re not the only one~s looking on in amazement!

Anyway...it was a relaxing day...we went to our local beach..but the sand was blistering hot...it~s called the botafogo beach. What a name..i just cant get my head around the name of this area!

Read Defoe~s Moll Flanders (from the hostel library) and am now onto the book i bought on the Galapagos (i~m trying to make it last because i want to keep it with me!) called My Father~s Island, by Johanna Angermyer...which is a beautiful book about her fathers time on the Galapagos islands..gosh, Eucuador is still strongly on my mind!!! I loved that place!

Also dreamt of growing daffodils and snap dragons in our garden at home...

It~s good to be having a break in Rio and reflecting, and dreaming as we lay on our single beds in our sparse room, staring up at the huge big fan blasting upon us....it~s still so HOT! And HUMID!