Tuesday 15th December:

A ten hour day touring the sights of Rio, well three of them anyway. Most of the day is spent on a coach though as we collect people from various hotels and navigate through the heavy traffic. A mild day by Rio standards for this time of year, but the thermometer reaches 38 degrees C, and the humidity is high.

John the Baptist is our guide for the trip to Rio Cathedral and then up Sugar Loaf Mountain, or JB as he more modestly prefers to be called. A lawyer in a previous life he thinks Margaret Thatcher should come and sort his country out, as we discuss the process of impeachment for corruption that the Brazilian President is currently undergoing. He despises the corruption and explains that is why he gave up the law and became a tour guide. He also explains that he will be in Germany for three months whilst the Olympics is on in Rio, as he is convinced that there will be a big terror attack. He waxes lyrical and talks about the "jerry-built" buildings that are going up, but that will crumble not long afterward. An interesting guy, but he hands us over to Louis, our lunch host.

The trip up Sugar Loaf is by cable car, and in two parts. The cars travel very quickly, must faster than the ones on Table Mountain. It's not crowded at all and we stroll around the top for 45 minutes and stare at the spectacular views across Rio harbour.

Lunch is in a large restaurant and is an impressive affair with an amazing array of salads, with which we all overfill our plates, except Sue who manages a stick of celery and a lettuce leaf. Once we have tucked into this feast the meat arrives, and continues to arrive at one minute intervals for the next half an hour. The meat is roasted on skewers and carved at the table, chicken, lamb, fillet steak, sausages. JB had advised us not to take too much salad, and save space for the meat, did we listen, of course not.

We are regaled through lunch by an Australian couple on a two month tour of South America, finishing off with Christmas in the Antarctic. An evening out the night before got quite frisky when they witnessed a shoot out between police and other unspecified bad boys, assault rifles the lot, and people stood there and took photographs, must say I didn't see that tour advertised anywhere.

Lorna chats to two separate girls from Tokyo, and introduces them to one another, and yes, two new Facebook friends are born.

The afternoon tour is led by an anonymous guide who takes us on the tour up to visit Christ the Redeemer, over 700 meters high above Rio. The journey is by a rack and pinion railway, and although pretty crowded is fantastic. The views across the whole of Rio are stunning, and the statue is some 40 metres high so no one can stand in front and get in the way.

After the large lunch we stay in the hotel for a snack supper, and join a boisterous crowd on level 23 to watch the sunset.