Last day in Rio
Topic: Brazil
28 hours on a bus can go surprisingly quickly. This time I read 2 entire books and one magazine plus managed to get some sleep. The scenery approaching Rio is spectacular. Lots of isolated mountains dominating small towns. It was dark by the time we crossed Niteroi bridge and got into the bus station. We took an ice-cold taxi to the hotel we had booked for 2 nights in Ipanema (where else!). The receptionist told us that the hotel was actually fully booked and would we mind staying in their 5 star sister hotel around the corner? Mind! Were they mad? We lucked out big time. We would never have spent 250 dollars on a hotel. It was so lovely and comfortable and made for a great relaxing last hours in Brazil.

We went to some of our favourite haunts - Ipanema beach, Zaza's cafe and Porker's churascaria. On Saturday, we took a bus in to Praca XV to collect some books we had bought 4 weeks ago - an 1833 twelve volume set of Walter Scott's poems. We hoped that the owners still had them... When we got there, there was a minor panic as the building looked closed. The bookshop is housed in the cultural center which used to be the mayor's residence. Fortunately, it wasn't closed and the guy actually remembered us. The books are gorgeous and we looked at them more closely over lunch at the bistro in the cultural center. I hadn't realised before that the illustrations were done by Turner. I can't believe the whole lot cost just 50 dollars.

After lunch, we put away our toys and headed outside to the weekend antiques market. I wished I had an upcoming fancy dress party as there were some fabulous vintage clothes, wigs, shoes and funky 50s glasses. I hoped I'd find a pair of vintage Chanel and I would have bought them no matter how ridiculous they looked on me! There weren't of course.

The market is set up in the shade of the motorway overhead and the further along you go from town, the poorer the stands are. Ones near the end were like car boot sale offerings. Lots of odds and ends. One couple were selling bits of dolls - they had a pile of legs and torsos for people to root through. Another guy had bits of mobile phones. Lots of stands sold 1970s porn mags. One guy's stand had only a typewriter and a pair of wellies on it. I was tempted by the old radios, globes and clocks but they are not the kind of thing you buy to lug home over 3 continents...

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to the specialised Bossa Nova shop. The owner told us about the start of Bossa Nova and the sales assistant practiced her English on us. After that, we just made it up to the roof terrace in time to watch our last sunset over Ipanema beach with our last caipirinhas. Rio is great. Not the dangerous place I had expected at all.