Today was the last full day of my Brazilian road trip since I have to return the car in Sao Paulo tomorrow by midday. Rather than rushing up from Curitiba tomorrow morning, I decided I’d end up back in Sao Paulo tonight instead. Therefore I planned a more leisurely route back which would take in more of the coast and require the whole day to drive.

Today was the start of my mini road trip south of Sao Paulo, and it of course had to begin with collection of the rental car. It had turned out the cheapest place to pickup was the international airport, so I had a roughly 1 hour journey to get there. The journey involved what was probably the busiest bus I have ever been on, with people crammed in until they literally couldn’t move.

Today was my second day relaxing at the beach, and it was probably the best yet, with perfect weather for the occasion. I headed there with two English guys and two Australian girls from the hostel who I met the night before, and we found a great spot on Copacabana. The beach appeared to be even busier than yesterday, and the main carriageway on the beach front was closed to cars.

The hostel I’ve been staying in has a list in reception of all the things to do while in Rio. It seems I’ve been working my way through them over the past few days, and today I decided to head to the botanical gardens, which are apparently one of the best in the world. Last time I went to botanical gardens was in Cape Town, so these ones had some strong competition.

Marc has less than two days left in Rio, which gives him just about enough time to see the two main sights: the Christ the Redeemer statue, and Sugarloaf Mountain. Today we decided on going to see Christ, since the Germans I met the other day were going, and we thought we may as well join them.

When considering what the most famous beaches in the world are, only a few come to mind (Santa Monica, Bondi for example), and two of them are right here in Rio: Copacabana and Ipanema. Given my hostel is a 5 minute walk from Copacabana beach, I thought it would be the perfect place to spend my first day in the city.

As the title suggests, today was my last full day in Buenos Aires, and it was also a rather relaxing one. Marc headed off to the airport around lunch time, and I was on my own for most of the day after that. Having seen quite a lot of the sights now, I had to do a bit of research online in order to find out where would be good for a wander.