Feb 15 - Nadine then Riki

Nadine = The day started beautifully, but as Gigi drove up at 9:30am to pick me up to go to Christ the Redeemer, typically it started to cloud over. We drove up, and took the Christ Tram up to the top. I almost want to call it the JesusMobile. Ascending upwards towards the Redemption of Christ, our trip up was through part of the Tijuca National Park, apparently the largest inner city national park in the world. Our trip was puncutated with sightings of rare and marvellous giant mammals, insects,birds, and Saints. Crafted carefully out of plaster/papier mache they really were quite stunning. Speaking of stunning, the views from the Christ were amazing when the cloud biblically parted and the sunlight streamed through in golden rays. Could my vocab sound any more ridiculous???!! No, but it was pretty amazing and I found it bizarre that I was actually up there, it is such a symbol of Rio, and to be there is quite astounding.
We were also accompanied by Samba musicians on the tram up, no wonder Brazilians are so happy - music is everywhere....
We took the obligatory photos, some better than others due to the hoardes of tourists now in the city for Carneval then we boarded our tram back down eagerly spotting our creatures again.
Back at the hostel I said farewell to Gigi and went shopping for cachaça to bring home and also got my legs waxed..not the most pleasant experience when one has minor sunburn.
However the end product was worth it and for a fraction of what it costs in NZ it had to be done.
As the sun had now cleared the sky completely I scuttled back to the hostel, again grabbed my sarong and plonked myself on the beach for the last time in Rio. Time was spent reading, people watching and restraining from talking to myself - well at least restraining from talking to someone who actually isn't lying beside me on their turquoise blue sarong anymore.
A coco gelado on the way back to the hostel to pack for the last time was interrupted by an email check, as the 3 free computers in our hostel have broken. TYPICAL!!! Back to the hostel I go and meet 2 English boys chilling in my local hostel spa which admirably has disco lights that flashed multiple colours. So in I get and join them and they go and get caipirinhas for us and we progressively get drunk in the spa to disco lights. A lasagne for dinner later and a change of outfit later we somehow split and I ended up hanging out with another group of boys and ended up minivanning it to Lapa, a neighbourhood in Rio where it has had a resurgence in popularity in the samba bars. We partied the night away and ended up watching the sunrise on Copacabana and headed back to the Hostel at 8am in the morning, ready for my taxi..




Riki = Meanwhile back in the B to the A I awoke far too early on Oli´s couch and decided to make the most of it by going for a ´last`walk around my valley in Recoleta. It`s frightening how familiar the place has become and what`s more how much I have come to love it. Arriving back I finally got hold of a friend to arrange meeting him for coffee. The day was jam-packed with catching up with people and farewelling and last-minute shopping. Everything ran late but I managed to shop till I dropped , eat a burrito and see some very beloved ´don´t know how i will cope without it`) Freddo and see various friends and loved ones. Despite everything running late and there being hold-ups every which way I managed to get myself and my luggage on a bus to Areco at 6.15. Arriving after 8 I was met by the Mamucha and we didn`t waste any time in picking up José and heading for dinner. Spanish is going surprisingly fluent considering the 8 weeks in Br and the constant English. Beanie I still mis you!!! jaja! After more ice cream we went to a friends place where I was filled in on the summer crazes i.e Big Brother and then there was bed. Well actually there was unpack everything so as to see what lay ahead of me in terms of packing. My room was(is) quite the ´quilombo`.