Rio to Cartagena. The next adventure begins!

I arrived in Rio and made my way to the hotel in a lovely area developed in the late nineteenth century. One o the older buildings under going some refiurbishment.

 My hotel. A beautiful building on the outside but the inside was in need of a little more attention and modernisation but I did like the price.

I was reintroduced to Spongebob, the big yellow truck that would be home for the m=next four months. I ha travelled on board her before and remembered most of the detail. The drivers with us were Paul that I ha first met in Argentina and again in Africa and Danny who I had met in London some years before.

On the way out of Rio we passed the Sambadrome. this is a series of tall spectator stands, like the two long sides of a large football stadium but the two sides are closer together and the ends are open. This is a permanent structure to allow crowds to watch the carnival display as the floats drive down the centre.

 Another view of one of the dozen pairs of stands.

Then it was up into the mountains leaving Rio at sea level to cross a pass at 980m in the mountains.

 The Finger of God overlooking the top of the pass before descending into Teresopolis.

And now that I was back in South America, I renewed my love affair with vochos or VW beetles. A light cream one...

 A two tone one