Rio de Janeiro

April 5th - Flew to Rio de Janeiro where we stayed in the Copacabana Hilton for 8 nights.

We had a tour on Good Friday covering the standard sights such as the Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugar Loaf mountain, the Celeron steps, the Cathedral, and the Maracanã Stadium. The rest of the week we did a lot of walking including a walk along the sea front from Leme beach to Ipanema beach and back. We also visited many restaurants and bars where we sampled the local dishes and beverages. One day we even sat on the beach for a couple of hours before catching the metro into the centre of Rio. Each time we walked outside of the hotel we left all items that might have been of interest to casual thieves, in the room safe, and only took our cheap sunglasses etc. with us. We had no trouble at all and felt quite safe unlike some others we met who had their gold jewellery stolen from around their necks as they were walking along the pavements.

April 13th - checked out of the hotel, and took a taxi to the docks where we boarded our cruise ship, Celebrity Infinity, for our journey back to Portugal.