Together with the Canaidian idiot and the Australian chick we made it to Recife and decided to stay a little bit North of the city in a very cosy place called Olinda. Once again we took it very easy. We just strolled along the nice centre and made a long walk along the coastline looking for the divingshop that we were recommended to. After searching for more than an hour we found out that the shop had been closed for more than a month. Christophe and me took a taxi to Recife where another company offers good diving. Eventhough the weather was a lot better than it is on the average Belgian summerday, they didn´t want to take us out because of the ´bad weather´!
So we took our time to visit the huge historical centre of Recife which has some beatifull colonial buildings and an impressive ammount of inhabitants...
The evenings in Olinda were some to remember! First we would go to the upper-city to have dinner with some magnificent views and then we would enjoy the lively nightscene in the streets. We would try all the different flavours of caipirinha in the many streetstalls and really absorb the Brazilian culture with its swinging music and beautifull happy people. By the start of our second night we would already have a reputation. People would already recognize us and started lauging as soon as they saw us coming...

Since we couldn´t go diving in Recife, we set our hopes on diving in Rio de Janeiro. It felt extremely weird to arrive here on Sunday, because I realized very well that now there was no way back. This was my final destination! Just a few more days in Rio and then... then I would have to wake up from this beautifull dream... Back to reality!!
But not before I enjoyed the last days at more than a 100%!! I didn´t get much sleep the last week, I guess there will be plenty of time to sleep in my own bed in just a few nights... We attended another Brazilian footballgame. This time in the biggest footballtemple of the whole planet: the legendary Maracana!!! This huge stadium was only filled for 1/10th, but these 17000 people still succeeded in creating a very good athmosphere!

On monday we strolled around this amazing city (probably my favorite city in this trip) and tried to find me a box to transport the bicycle in the airplane. I only found a way too small box, so I´m still curious on how it will all go. By the way, thanks to Roberta my bicycle was store perfectly safe in Rio and when I got it back after being apart for about two weeks I got a bit emotional. In the we have been through a lot of great moments together!
On my very last day, once again we had to settle with three hours of sleep because we got up early in the hope to go diving. We spent a few hours on Ipanema-beach which was completely packed with the most gorgeous women in the world, dressed in tiny bikinis... After that we cruised on to the ocean in a very powerfull speed boat. It was a great way of ending this adventure! The views on the city from the ocean are absolutely stunning and we enjoyed the boatride very much! After that I slipped in top of the notch equipment and in a breathtaking scenery we jumped into the water for a 40 minute dive along the islands in front of Ipanema. Turtles, a lot of fich and just the wonderfull feeling of being under water again!! I absolutely loved it!!! Afterwards we took our time to do more tourism by boat. Of course the views of Ipanema, Copacabana and Sugarloaf were great but maybe the highlight for Christophe, me and the four guys from the crew was bumping in to the Playboy-fotoshoot on the Flamengo-Bay...

Tonight I celebrate my last night. I don´t know where to go, or who to celebrate with; but being Lucky Ruben I´m sure this night will be just as great and unforgettable as the previous 300 have been!!!

I will keep you people posted the first few weeks when I´m back home. Telling you if I can adapt again, maybe try to make a selection of the many highlights and evaluate the whole trip. Also a very detailed table of all my cycling days will be uploade in the one of the next weeks, so stay tuned!!