It was our last day in South America & we'd pretty much run out of things to do in Rio.
After breakfast we went for a nice long walk along Copacabana beach (just near the hotel). It was very pleasant & reminded me of some of the beaches in S.E. Queensland.
On the way back to the hotel, Kerri dragged me around a lap of the shops and managed to pick up a couple of dresses.
We'd organized to meet up with Corina & Sandra who were staying at the next beach, Ipanema. Nic came along with us. We caught the bus & hopped off a block away from their hotel. We all Went for lunch at a nice little Italian restaurant before spending an hour or so at the beach. The surf was quite heavy & a side sweep was washing swimmers along the coast. It didn't stop me having a go, but it was hard work & I had to choose my waves very carefully for fear of breaking my neck.
We said good bye to our Swiss friends & headed back to the hotel. We were pretty much sorted, but we had to do our final pack before heading to the airport. Part of it was disposing of some clothing (including my faithful hiking boots) that was beyond help after the abuse over the previous month & a half. It also involved a last ditch effort to try to find the camera that went missing in Bonito. Fortunately it did show up 4 months later back in sunny Perth. Suellen had managed to track it down & send it back to us.I was glad to the point of being excited to be heading back to Canada & ultimately Australia. By the same token I was also very sad that the amazing journey was over & reality was imminent.
I've posted some photos of Rio de Janeiro on my Flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7663586@N02/sets/72157621609505939/show/
The friendly taxi driver who had taken us around for the city tour a couple of days previous was co-incidentally the same one who took us to the airport. We had a lovely chat with him & it was a somewhat fitting way to leave the continent. Our flight back to Calgary left later in the evening & did a short hop to Sao Paulo before the long flight to Houston.
We arrived in Houston early in the morning but late enough that the cafes were open for breakfast. Strangely being able to have a normal bacon, eggs & toast; and Hotcakes never tasted so good! We clearly missed western food.
The last leg to Calgary took us over Colorado & Montana which were both covered in the now familiar white powder. I made a mental note to visit both states some time. We slipped through customs in Calgary without so much as a peep & the lady that processed us was so very friendly despite our sleep deprivation. We'd left Rio where the temp was in the high 20's only to land on the other side of the equator in the mid negative teens. It was a bit of a shock for sure. We'd made it though.
