We was already on a bad start for our journey to Rio De Janeiro. The previous night in Iguazu Falls we had ordered a large pizza each which also had for breakfast the following day. Upon inspection of our delicious breakfast, it had made new friends over night and was infested with ants. So now we are all faced with a twenty hour bus journey to Rio De Janeiro with no breakfast.

Day 1

After a tiresome bus ride we arrived in Rio De Janeiro around mid day and got the cheapest taxi possible to Ipanema. We checked into our hostel called the Girl From Ipanema (recommended by our Flight Centre Travel Agent) and went straight to the beach as its all we could think about. Pretty much every women on the beach was stunning and most did not leave much for the imagination.

Later on in the afternoon John wanted his hair cut after resisting for nearly 3 months. So I put our hair clippers purchased in America on its first outing (See later post for full details).

On our first evening we decided to go the Lagoon to watch the opening / unveiling of the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree itself was quite impressive. We was informed that this was the largest floating tree in the World. But with this fact, I would imagine most people couldn’t even name another floating tree. On the unveiling of the tree there was an equally impressive fireworks display and we got to enjoy lots of typical Brazilian street food such as meat kebabs and these delicious deep fried potato parcels filled with minced meat.

Day 2

On the second day we went to the Maracana to watch Flemengo v Goias in what was once the largest stadium in the world. At its peak the stadium held nearly 200,000 spectators in the 1950 World Cup Final, but now the stadium has been reduced in capacity and seats approximately 90,000 spectators. The football match we got to watch was absolutely brilliant and completely end to end stuff. The final score was 3-3 with a nail biting ending where any team could have won. The stadium itself looked impressive from the outside but once inside it looked old and well used.

In the evening we decided to treat ourselves and ate at a typical Brazilian style restaurant called Choates. At this restaurant you are given a little disk with one red side and one green side. These are too be placed next to you on the table which are used to indicate whether you want more food or not. So naturally we all left ours on green and kept the food piling on, which we would soon later regret as we all suffered from ‘meat sweats’ because we neglected the vegetables and when straight for the meats.

Day 3

On the third day we had a pre-booked tour to explore most of the places of interest in Rio. Our morning started with a hike up a mountain weaving through a forest which I totally forgot about and showed up in my flip flops. The rest of the boys were prepared in their trainers but failed to inform me. At the top of the mountain were beautiful views of Rio and we could clearly with all the suburbs that swooped around the golden coast line.

Afterwards we visited that famous Christ De Redentor before a visit to Santa Teresa to see that famous colourful steps created by local artist Selaron. The steps are made up from tiles that have been sent to the artist from all over the world and where each tile is unique and representative of the country it came from.

In the evening we decided to go to a bar / club called House because they had a offer where caipirinha cocktails were free between 10PM - 12PM. Needless to say this was going to be a messy night as it was like our duty to get our moneys worth and drink as much as possible. From what I remember Kev caved in first and didn’t even last to 12PM whereas myself, John and Chris faired better but was not exactly in a conscious state to remember our exact movements throughout the night.

Day 4

Still feeling hung over, today was going to be our chill out day on the beach, soaking up the sun whilst drinking from a freshly cut coconut. The weather was absolutely stunning and we even managed to play a few games of beach football. However, we were totally out classed by the ‘Speedo’ wearing Brazilians and you could see they were playing around with us as they as went to the difficult but spectacular goal.

Day 5

For our last day in Rio was decided to explore the Favelas and get a real essence of Brazilian. A Favela is a shanty town where the majority of the working class live because it is cheap and not governed by local taxing laws. Here we saw the differences in the living conditions between the rich and poor, an art studio creating local Favela art and even visited a nursery that was funded by the tour company guiding us around. On the tour we had one hair raising moment where another member of the group accidentally took a picture of a drug dealer who was carrying a very large gun. Our tour guide had to react immediately by apologising to the drug dealer and deleting any photos that pictures the dealer.

Next stop Easter Island to explore that wonders of the Polynesian culture.

The long bus rides seem like normality to us now as we arrive into Iguazu Falls, Argentina at 9am after a 17 hours of traveling time. We only had to walk 5 minutes down the road to our hostel called the Iguazu Falls Inn. It wasn’t what we thought it was going to look like, as we saw pictures of this beautiful resort with nice big swimming pools surrounded by palm trees. We soon realised that we had mistaken this with the other hostel ith a very similar name. This place still looked ok with the odd few cockroaches and small lizards running around.

After settling into, we catch a bus to the Iguazu National Park to see the infamous Iguazu Falls. It cost us 60 Pesos per person for the entrance fee which isn’t too bad. We went for a walk along the upper, verde and Macuco trails. We saw some wildlife such as Coaties, praying mantis and tons of giant ants. We just had about enough time to go see the Devil’s throat where you get to go very close to one of the waterfalls. Here we got pretty soaked from the spray of the water hitting the lower river. It’s an amazing sight and much bigger than the Niagara falls we saw in Canada.

One day at the park was not long enough to see everything, so we went back the following day which was at a cheaper price of 30 pesos as we visited the day before. We took a trek through to the lower trail and then took a short thrilling jet boat ride that took us to the bottom of the waterfalls. We had planned to go to San Martin Island but this was closed due to the high water levels. We ended up going back to the hostel early and chilling out in the swimming pool before we went out to eat at a place called Colors where the owner kindly gave is 10% off our bill.

Now that we have seen the Argentine side of the Iguazu Falls, we wanted to go see the Brazilian side which was supposed to give great overviews of the national park and its falls. Getting there was surprisingly easy, despite having to cross the border. We simply caught a bus from the bus terminal which took us to the Argentine immigration which gave us departure stamps and then went straight past the Brazilian immigration with no checks whatsoever. The bus driver then dropped us in the middle of nowhere, where we then flag down and catch a bus to the park.

We arrived at the park and had to pay an entrance fee of 20.50 Reais which more than expected. When we were in the park, we caught the bus straight to the viewpoints and got to see the Iguazu Falls in its entirety. It was a beautiful view but that’s was all in the park that interested us.

There wasn’t much else apart from a few adventure sports like rafting or jet-boating. I feel the entrance fee is somewhat extortionate for what was available in this park. Needless to say we never spent much time here and headed back to the hostel early where we enjoyed the swimming pool yet again. And because the food at Colors restaurant was so good, we went back again the following night and were happy chappies when we got 10% off our food bill again.

Our two days a Iguazu has been fun. I  much prefer the Argentine side because there was more trails you can complete that take you through the falls where as the Brazilian side merely offers a overview, which is still not to be missed.