Sloth

It wasn't just coatis that were at home amongst the throngs of tourists. This sloth was in one of the busiest areas.

Coatis

After travelling across brazil & only seeing 3 coatis, we couldn't believe that at a busy tourist spot like JC on the hill, would be home to a huge family of the busy little critters. They were so brazen! I made sure I kept my distance.

Three of the youngsters even decided to have a play fight right in fronts of us.

The View From Above

Far more interesting than the huge statue was the view from its feet. We could see across the entire city, the bay it surrounds, the Atlantic Ocean, and Sugar Loaf rock amongst other sights.

Christ the Redeemer

If you haven't seen footage of this huge statue, you've been living under a serious rock. It's very popular with the tourist set & we were far from alone. The statue can bee seen from almost anywhere in the city & with good reason. It's on about the highest point in the area.

Off to Rio

We left the boat at Mangro and waited for a little while for our van. It turns out that the van wasn't big enough for the whole lot of us so an extra taxi (of sorts) showed up as well. Most of the group rushed to get in the van which was a bit cramped by the time they all pile in. Kerri, Nic & myself took the car option & it was a good one. Plenty of space & comfy seats.

The trip wasn't especially interesting & about the only thing of interest (and I use the term loosely) was this train. As you can expect, not much to say. It's a train.

I guess it took a couple of hours to get to the hotel in Rio de Janeiro. The hotel situation was a disaster! Most of the rooms weren't ready even though it was well past check in time. Our room was ready but one of the two single beds had the hardest mattress I've ever sat on! No jokes, it was more like a table! We complained because we weren't about to put up with it for the last 3 nights of out holiday (and it would have been me sleeping on it). They found us a different room but they made it difficult for us.

We signed ourselves up for a city tour that afternoon because it looked like it would be the best weather for the next few days. It would take us to most of the big tourist spots/traps around Rio.

Out of place

I spotted this otter close to the mainland. I don't know which species it is because the research I've done tells me there shouldn't be otters in the ocean in that area. I think it could be one of the endangered sea going otters that are normally off the Argentina coast.

Time To Leave

Day 45 - Travel to Rio de Janeiro

Unfortunately we had to leave Ilha Grande some time. The younger members of the group had gone on a booze cruise to one of the small islands the night beofre & weren't too interested in anything except sleeping. Guess which ones they were.... We all piled onto a small boat for the trip back to the mainland. We wouldn't go back to Angra this time but would instead head slightly north east to Mangro.