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Rio De Janiero was the last city on my South America tour. We arrived and were taken to our hotel in Copacabana beach. We were told not to walk along the beach at night with any bags or valuables. As we more than likely to be robbed – Welcome to Brazil !

My first impressions of Copacabana not very nice. It just seem very dirty, smelly and not somewhere that I have been dreaming of visiting for years. So lets see how the rest of our visit goes. Today we had a full day tour. We were picked up at 8am for our morning visit to Corcovado mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer. we were taking to the train station to take the 30 min ride up the Corcovado mountain.

And then a lift and two sets of escalators, I arrived.  It was lovely finally seeing this in the flesh but not a fan of all the pushing and shoving that I had to experience. I am walking with a crutch and will be slow and people have no manners any more.

We had some beautiful views of what our guide who told us the poor side and the rich side of Rio De Janiero. This shows both Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

After this, we were dropped back to Copacabana beach and told to get something to eat. We found this lovely restaurant called Bio Carioca which turned out to be a health food restaurant. Which felt like a sign as I have not been eating well on this holiday. I ordered gluten free Gnocchi and it was delicious.

We then meet our group again, and we were driven to visit Sugarloaf mountain by cable car. Sugarloaf Mountain is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 m above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.  The cable car goes from a ground station, at the base of Morro da Babilônia, to Morro da Urca and thence to Sugarloaf’s summit. To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro da Urca, 220 m (722 ft) high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Swiss made bubble shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. The ascent takes three minutes from start to finish. And it was surprising very smooth. And it was just a lovely experience with some beautiful views.

Our next door, our guide offered as walking tour of the old town. I would have been interested if when we drove through it the day before, it looked vandalised, not something I wanted to see. So we decided to just relax and spend time on the beach.

We were not allowed to swim as the current is too strong. But just to be on this beach was such a dream come true. I never ever thought I would ever get there. It really is picture perfect. But behind the hotels and buildings it is not very nice. Our guide told us, that there is so much corruption. A new government has just won the election, and he has high hopes that they will sort out all this. This is such a shame that Rio De Janiero is so poor. I am so glad that I have finally visited but do not think I would ever want to return.