Rio de Janeiro

We arrived in Rio and went straight up to Sugar Loaf Mountain. We took the cable car to the very top, sat down with our beers and watched the sun set over the Big JC and Copacabana beach. It was a great sight!

The next morning, Kate & I went off to Ipanema Beach where someone had made a giant Santa statue from sand. It was very surreal! We alsowent to the Hippie Market which was a massive craft sale. We then did a tour of the Favela's - Rocinha & vila Canoas, which was fasciating to see. We met some of the locals who had done art work and made jewellry. We also saw a local school where children go until their parents are home - its an initiative to try and prevent the kids roaming the streets and getting caught up in the drug industry.
That afternoon, we caught the bus and went to the Big JC. We took the little train up the hillside and then walked around taking tonnes of photos of the views of Rio, as well as of the Big JC. We caught the little train back and headed into the city for dinner.

The next day we spent the morning shopping before flying out to Santiago. The flight was the most interesting that I've been on - we had to stop in Sao Paolo but when we got there, there was a massive storm overhead and we couldn't land. As we were running out of fuel, we flew back to Rio. After re-fuelling, we flew back to Sao Paolo, landed and then carried onto Santiago!!! The map on the plane showed us circling Sao Paolo several times!