Rio to Bogota

Well since our last update we've had quite a change in our travel plans. Instead of missioning it up to Salvador and then having to mission it back down south before heading to Colombia, we decided to go straight from Rio, to Bogota in Colombia. With the extra time we will have from not going up the coast of Brasil we have decided to volunteer in Peru for two weeks. We've made this change for a few reasons - firstly; cost, Brazil is so expensive compared to the other countries we've been in and to get all the way up to Savador would cost quite a bit and then the flight would be even more than it was from Rio. It would also have been a 25hr bus trip or so up to Salvador and even though we had decided to split the trip, it would still be a lot of time on buses. I'd been thinking that I'd really like to do some volunteering over here but figured that we wouldn't have enough time so didn't really think more about it. But now that we are going to have the time, we are looking at volunteering with an orgainisation who help the people of Pisco in Peru, whoses lives and homes were destroyed by an earthquake in 2007. Check out their website if you are interested www.piscosinfronteras.org/about-us.html. We had really been looking forward to going to Salvador, but are happy with the decision that we've made as we figure that volunteering will be very rewarding in itself. Besides, we can always see Salvador another time....

Back to the present (or near past) - Our time in Rio was rather full on, mostly due to the heat which sat in the mid to high 30's during the day and high 20s/low 30s at night. We arrived first thing in the morning and decided to spend the day visiting some of the main beaches. We'd been warned not to take anything of value to the beaches at all if we were planning on going swimming and as we were going all around the place and needed certain things with us, a swim was off the cards. We did however wander along the beaches, paddling in the water and attempting to avoid the throngs of people who had everything on show (saw enough bum crack to last a life time!), after a while the immense crowds and heat began to feel rather overwhelming and we headed away from the beaches to a hippy market which wasn't overly hippy but did have some interesting things to look at.

Day two in Rio was a little stressful as we had attempted to book our flight to Colombia for the next day and none of our reservations were fully processing although the money had been taken out of our account. I was determined not to let this ruin our day and figured that things would some how work out, I had to attempt to get Mike into this mindset.... So with the thought of money having come out of our account and no flight booking confirmed we headed out to see the Cristo Redentor and Sugarloaf Mountain. On the bus on the way I discovered just how expensive it was to see both, so we decided to just get the train up the mountain to see Cristo Redentor and not go up Sugarloaf Mountain as we would get good views from the Cristo Redentor anyway. The view from the top was amazing as we could see the whole city spread out before us. Rio is an interesting city in relation to its location as it's set inbetween very steep mountains that end up fragmenting the city, this does though make for a beautiful city where the sea, green spaces and city scape all intergrate together. After taking in the city, the statue and sampling a Coxinha which is a popular Brazilian snack, made from shredded chicken and spices, enclosed in potato and then lightly deep fried in bread crums - delish - we headed back to our hostel hoping that we'd have some confimation from the airline about our flight. Unfortunatly this wasn't so, so with the help of our hostel's owner Paul, Mike rang the airline and attempted to find out what the deal was. After a lot of back and forth between customer services and the booking agent, the consensus was to just appear the next morning at the airport for the flight and talk to someone in person. Our main worry was that our available balance and actual balance were still uneven with the difference being the cost of the flight and we did not want to end up paying for the flight twice.

After getting very little sleep in the 30C overnight heat, we rose at 4am and headed to the airport, still not sure what was going to happen. Thankfully the woman at the airline desk spoke English and was able to help us out. They had recieved 5 attempts from us trying to make bookings but none had fully processed so we booked and paid for new tickets then and there and got on our flight feeling relieved that we wouldn't be charged twice - although the money still hasn't shown back up in my account (Mum, might have to get you to talk to the bank if things don't wort themselves out....).

After a day of travelling we have arrived in the Colombian capital Bogota and are relieved to be back in a cooler climate. It's currently 14C and the overnight low gets down to 8C! I'm rather looking forward to getting some use out of my winter clothes and having a snug nights sleep. Tomorrow we plan to discover Bogota and the day after go and see a Catherdral that has been made undergrownd in some old salt mines before we head north and back to the warmth and beaches.

Ilona