South America and Antarctica

It was wonderful to have another morning with nothing scheduled until 4 pm when we head to the airport. We had a leisurely breakfast and then went out for a walk. On our way out of the hotel we met another guest who had just had her phone stolen out of her hand as she was standing on a corner checking the GPS to figure out which way to turn. Someone came along on a bike and grabbed it. She hurried back to the hotel and was able to track its location using the Find My on her iPad. It was only a kilometre away, but likely never to be seen again.  I had been warned the day before by a local lady when I stopped to take a picture. She said, as best as I could understand her Portuguese, that they snatch phones out of tourists hands frequently. Having first hand knowledge of this petty theft made me feel uncomfortable.  We went for a short walk, keeping our phones out of sight, walking hand in hand with my cross body purse between us. We needed to go to a currency exchange to get mor...

We were up just before 4 am to get ready to head to the airport. Our driver met us at 4:45 am for a speedy, no traffic drive to the airport. We were checked in by 5:11 am for our 7:55 am flight. Our take off was delayed about 20 minutes while waiting for a last minute crew change.   It was an uneventful flight, but the problems started after we landed. We were seated in row 1 so we arrived quickly to the baggage area. It was weird that there were very few other passengers arriving and very few bags. One suitcase came and we waited and waited and the other did not show up.  We went to the counter and using Google Translate, our new best friend, we explained that one bag was missing. They told us to go back and wait. We did and still nothing. We have AirTags in our bags so we could see that is was at the airport, just not where it was supposed to be. Half an hour later, it finally arrived.  We went to our meeting point for the driver, but he was stuck in traffic. He sh...

Today was the first day in a month that we didn’t have to be up early for a tour or a talk or a flight. Of course we were awake by 6 so we had breakfast and were on the beach by 8. It was fairly cloudy but 25C feeling like 30C.  We spent the morning people watching from the shade of an umbrella and walking the beach. For such a hot country, the ocean water was quite cold. The waves were really crashing into the shore and bringing a fair bit of garbage with it.  By noon we decided to go back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. That water was quite warm, slightly less than a comfortable bath but it did feel good. A nap was the next order of business.  After we got up and showered, we went for a walk to find the girl from Ipanema. We found her and thousands of her friends. There was a festival celebrating the Afro-Brazilian sea goddess taking place on the beach between Copacabana and Ipanema. Women in white dresses entered the ocean carrying bouquets of flowers to offer to ...

Today we joined a city highlights tour of Rio. The skies were quite overcast so we packed our rain gear. The van picked us up at 7:15 and it was 8 am before all the passengers had been collected.  Our first stop was one of the 7 modern wonders of the world, Christ the Redeemer, at the top of Corcovado Mountain. The mountain is one of many in Rio and has a height of 700 metres. To get to the statue we drove through the Tijuca National Forest to the visitor centre. There we boarded a park van to get almost to the top of the mountain. From the parking area you can take an elevator or climb around 200 steps to the monument.  Christ the Redeemer was completed in 1931 and stands 30 metres tall. The span from finger tip to finger tip is 28 metres. It is made of reinforced concrete and covered in soapstone. It is beautiful and the largest art deco sculpture in the world.  Even though we were there early, there were hundreds of people there, most of whom wanted to take a selfie or...