Feb 16th 2007 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

All day flying today from La Paz to Santa Cruz to San Paolo then to Rio De Janiero the final destination. At San Paolo, a few of us discovered our luggages have been tampered with by airport baggage handlers. One of my wheels have been ripped off, tags gone missing and my lucky Mr. Bean teddy bear key ring that has travelled everywhere with me for the last 5 years have been stolen!!! Bugger!!! Luckily for the combination locks and several paddlocks, my bag proved too hard to get in but the rest are not so lucky. Memory cards stolen, bags have been riffled thru and everything was saturated from the bags being left out in the rain. So it was not a very nice experience. Take care if you are flying into or from Bolivia!!!!!!

Okay a brief geographical facts about Brazil. San Paolo the largest city in Brazil has 16 million people. Rio De Janeiro, the second largest have only 12 million but will increase to another 2 million from tourists coming for the Rio Carnival 2007.

We saw lots of airport lounges today and planes got delay. One thing about this trip, I learn to have lots of patience.

One thing that hit me when we arrived in Rio is LIGHTS!!!!! lights everywhere and people partying on the streets. We arrived at the hotel at about 1am in the morning and there are still people dancing on the streets and Copacabana beach.What an atmosphere. Dropped our bags off in our rooms and then off partying to about 4am. One thing about being back at sea level, everyone felt re oxygenated and in party mode all round.