Finish, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After 32 days on the road, 5 countries and 14,500 kilometres we are very pleased to be in Rio de Janeiro! This has been a fantastic rally, we have been to some incredible places and seen some marvellous things, a chance of a lifetime and a privelidge to be a part of. Many thanks should go to Bart Rietbergen and his team for putting together such a well organized event. The days have gone really quickly and there has not been much time to think about anything outside the rally. Some crews were not so lucky, there were quite a few hire cars tagging along by the end, only 25 cars out of the 30 which set off from Buenos Aires a month ago made it to Rio.
We had very few problems in the scheme of things, although The Mighty One was sounding pretty rattly by the end. Most of our ailments centred around worn suspension bushes and shock absorbers, a result of the terrible road conditions, but pretty easy to sort out when the car gets home. Special thanks should go to Brian Morris who prepared the car, that's 13 rallies without a DNF!
We took the car over to the port this morning, it went straight into a container and should be back in Amsterdam by Xmas. After lunch we went to see Jesus, aka Christ The Redeemer, the giant statue which overlooks Rio from the top of Corcovado Mountain, another one of the seven wonders of the world, and an incredible spectacle.
Our hotel on Copacabana beach is hosting a football world convention this week and there are lots of important football types here from all over the world, we have seen numerous famous faces around the place, they are preparing for the 2014 World Cup which is being held here. None of them seem to recognize us though.
The prizegiving last night was a great night out, it was on Sugarloaf Mountain, we went in a cable car to get there. Our final result was 7th overall and third in class, the Brits did pretty well, Sean Arnold won, with Jon and Chris second, Richard and Nicola won the 4x4 class (having set off in a Mk 2 Jaguar) much to the chagrin of the Dutch, but there you go.
Thanks for reading, that's all for now...