This one has taken ages to write up, perhaps we didn’t want to acknowledge that a final post meant the end of our big adventure?

Debbie had been somewhat nervous about going to Brazil and was quite terrified at the prospect of Rio. The overview from the guide books was that Rio is a fantastic destination for tourists who want a mix of stunning natural beauty, vibrant culture and world-famous beaches BUT it does require heightened awareness of personal safety and petty crime. So Debbie researched where the ‘safest’ areas where, down to the specific blocks, and we went for it – but limited ourselves to 2 nights to minimise the risk.

The transfer from Ilhe Grande was booked online with a well-reviewed Rio-based company, as Paraty Tours were far too expensive. It turned out that we would’ve paid far less if we’d booked locally once on Ilhe Grande, or done what the couple we’d met on a boat tour were doing – hop on a boat to the mainland and get an Uber. But given Debbie’s nervousness about Rio, she wasn’t prepared to take any chances. Ilha Transfer were worryingly vague about which boat we were on, and which port we were going to, but it all worked out just fine and after dropping the rest of our shuttle passengers off at some dodgy-looking locations we arrived at our hotel, right on the seafront at the ‘good’ end of Copacabana Beach. We’d narrowed it down to 2 hotels but the better (and pricier) Miramar by Windsor didn’t have any sea view room availability, so we booked a partial sea view at the Grand Mercure next door and bid for a standby upgrade to a seafront room. We were in luck, and that also got us the more exclusive breakfast in the rooftop restaurant overlooking Copacabana too – superb, but it will surprise no-one that our accommodation budget was totally ignored. It was the last 2 nights of our grand adventure after all, so we may as well finish our travels in style.

The view over Copacabana was stunning, a 2+mile arc of sand with Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance.

Debbie woke early the next morning to see the sunrise and was greeted with the view of hundreds of paddle-boarders already out at sea before the crack of dawn. Apparently it was a tribute to a paddle-boarder who had recently passed away. As the sky turned orange and the sun rose, Copacabana was majestic and already full of life.

We only had one full day in Rio so needed to get an early start to pack everything in. First stop was Christ The Redeemer, Rio’s iconic statue of Jesus standing atop Corcovado Mountain, 710m above sea level. Options for getting there included walking up the winding road (no chance!), taking an Uber or minibus from Copacabana, or the spectacular train ride through the Tijuca forest. Luck was on our side and we managed to get tickets for the train so took an Uber to the base station – £3 for a 20 minute journey – we are going to get a shock when we have to pay UK prices again! The 30m tall statue was certainly impressive, as were the spectacular views over Rio, but the crowds were absolutely horrendous.

We didn’t linger as (1) it was too bloody busy and (2) we had other places to be, so took the train back down the mountain and grabbed an Uber to our next stop – Sugarloaf Mountain. The summit is reached by 2 cable cars and we were pleasantly surprised to find bars, restaurants and shops at the halfway point, and took the opportunity to have a beer and sit and marvel at the views – up to Christ The Redeemer, out to the islands and coastline, across to the domestic airport (fascinated by the sharp turns that the small planes were making near to Christ The Redeemer before heading in to land). Helicopter rides were available but we weren’t tempted given the extortionate pricing! The 2nd cable car took us to the summit and even more glorious views out to Copacabana. Steve had been to Rio on business over 25 years ago but hadn’t told Debbie that it was actually a stunningly beautiful place.

Our final stop of the day was Ipanema Beach – a fabulous long arc of sand absolutely packed with young and beautiful sun worshippers and with a very different feel to Copacabana – very much a lively party beach. It was a shame that we didn’t have more time as a day here would’ve been fantastic, although our swimwear might have stood out given that it was MUCH bigger than what most were wearing! Instead we settled for a couple of caipirinhas in the sun before strolling back to our hotel (this is the safest part of town and was full of people), stopping for a longed-for Chinese dinner on the way.

Our final morning in South America brought another beautiful sunrise and we decided to spend a few hours on the beach before heading to the airport. Our hotel had beach chairs so we sat in comfort marvelling at the goings-on at Copacabana. Steve braved the waves but Debbie had more sense. This was more of a family destination than Ipanema and young & old came out in their thousands to enjoy a sunny Sunday. Brazilians travel light to the beach as anything you need (and many things that you don’t) can be hired or purchased from the plethora of vendors – beach chairs, parasols, towels, drinks, clothes, barbecued food. We were amazed at some of the food offerings and the little portable BBQs that the beach vendors carried on their shoulders. The guy selling king prawn skewers didn’t get many takers though, unsurprising given the heat of the day! We decided to stick with caipirinhas and the drinks guy brought Steve 3 stacks of glasses to select from – he didn’t realise that they were different sizes and that he was being asked to select the size of drink we wanted, so we ended up with a 750ml drink EACH. And then we wobbled back to our hotel to grab an Uber to the airport.

It was World Cup final day, so we got to the airport early to enable us to watch it in the airline lounge. But we were called to the gate before extra time was over and listened to the commentary on phones. Just as we boarded it was all over and Spain had won – fortunate given that we were travelling with Iberia, Spain’s national airline! Our fellow passengers and the crew were in a rather celebratory mood as we set off for Madrid and a huge Spanish flag was hung at the front of the business class cabin.

Rio turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Obviously the research, staying in the right area and being very conscious of our personal safety helped but this is certainly a city that’s worth a visit, and our short stay was nowhere long enough. We really liked the tiny bit of Brazil that we saw and would definitely consider coming back to explore more of this vast country.

So that’s the end of our South American adventure – 14 amazing weeks in total but we barely scratched the surface. There’s definitely unfinished business here for a future trip.

And it’s the end of our great retirement adventure too – time to get the tenant out of our house, our furniture and worldly goods out of storage, start on the house refurbishments that we’d put off until after our travels (yes Steve, we ARE having a new kitchen!) and get on with being retired folk in Devon. It won’t be the end of our travels though – there’s still a lot of the world that we want to see – but we’ll do as ‘holidays’, albeit probably longer than 2-3 weeks at a time.

Until next time….