Kris & Chris & The World

It is sadly our last day in Rio, I think you could spent 2 weeks here and not be bored and not see all there is to see. it has been raining for a few days so we have~´t had much beach time. But going to do something about that today.

At last our tour group has split up. The tour ended on Sunday but we have kept hanging out and doing stuff together for three days until the first people started leaving. We have even still been hanging out with our tour guide. It has been really cool! But now there are only chris and I and 3 Norwegians left in Rio, so it is really coming to an end.

Anyway we went back to Maracana stadium on wednesday night for a semi final game featuring our new favourite team - BOTAFOGO!!!! The tickets were sold for R$2 so about NZ$1.50, but when we arrived the ticket office was closed, so we had to buy them from scalpers for R$10 (NZ$7,50) still a huge bargain! There were loads of people and we ended up standing in the rowdy crowded section. But luckily we had our Botafogo shirts from the first game so everyone was very nice to us and gave us ballons. The crowd was so amazing, they were singing and chanting special Botafogo songs. The first half of the game was amazing. And in the end Botafogo won 3 -1, but beacuse of that 1 goal the other team actually won overall and went through to the final (due to away points or something) so it was a very subdued crowd in the end. Before half time the crowd was at 64, 000 people, but then they opened the park for the second half and let everyone in for free, so it was packed. The game finished at midnight and then we had to take the metro back to the city. That was a bit freaky as we saw the cops bashing some people with big battons as they jammed into the metro. But we got back fine.

Yesterday we were extremely tired and it was bad weather so we decided to go shopping to one of the big malls. It took us about 2 hours to get there as we got of the bus at the wrong place (my fault) and then went to the wrong place (also my fault) but eventually we made it and it was a massive mall. We split up and Chris had a great time and ended up buying more than me - shock horror! I found it quite hard to communicate, but in the end I found a lovely store with friendly women who didnt mind that i could speak portugese and I got the coolest pair of wooden and leather wedges. We didnt leave the mall till 7:30pm so got a taxi back to the hotel and it was really cool. The city is beautiful at night with the mountains and all the lights. we drove past the favela we had visited and it looked like a Christmas tree, beacause they dont have straight roads and houses are jammed everywhere the lights are all over the place - very cool.

Today we are just going to pack, hang out on the beach and then have one last night of caprianas with our norwegian friends. We leave tomorrow at about mid day and arrive on London on Sunday morning. I can~t wait to see Meraud and Charlotte.

South America has been one of the most amazing times of our lives, we have done so much and seen so many amazing things. I would love to come back and visit more places. And all the things we were told have turned out the opposite e.g. you will only eat bad food - not true! Had amazing sushi yeseterday and even in remote places the food was brilliant, and only got sick once and it only lasted a morning, and it may have been from the drinks not the food!!! And even though we have had a bit of bad luck (lost luggage and chris´s wallet being pick pocketed in Bolivia) it hasnt been that bad. So I think everyone should come here because it is truely an amazing place.

PS in the end I got 9 new pairs of shoes, but 7 of them are havaiana´s so they dont really count