30th Oct - La Paz to Rio

Got up late everything hurts especially my bottom - I havent' been on a bike in so long and they make the saddles out of razor blades (I'm sure). But we are totally buzzing at the fact we did it. Made it all the way down the 64 km without mishap.
Now all we have to do today is get to Rio. The taxi to the airport was interesting since we took the scenic route or rather unscenic route through the shanty towns clinging to the steep sides of the cliffs surrounding La Paz.
Some of the views of the Andies which La Paz is nestled in were amazing. Huge snow covered peaks on all sides, and the taxi driver was very happy to stop and let us take photos and even gave us a running commentary on the names and history of the places.
The take off was probably one of the most spectacular I've ever encountered, the run way is on a plateaux on the top of one of the steep sides and only seconds after take off the ground disappears at the cliffs and La Paz comes into view. The ground seems to plummet away from you in a really surreal way with the city opening up before you - quite spectacular. We only had the huge peaks to climb over now which seemed to be looking pretty damned close but the plane got over them and surprisingly soon we were out of the Andies and pristine rain forest lay miles before us in a beautiful green blanket.

We arrived in Rio pretty late but could feel the heat already. The hostel was like a prison coved in fencing and cameras. We had to prove our identity just to get in. Unfortunately we then had a battle with the receptionist over our room which we won thankfully and collapsed around 2am - not an auspiscious start to Brasil.