Rio de Janeiro was where I rounded up my seven month trip, and perhaps that is why I still have a sense of having unfinished business with the place: I didn’t feel like it was really time to leave. Or, maybe it was one of these reasons:

1- When booking our ticket we thought Great! August! Summer!, forgetting that Rio is in the Southern Hemisphere. Yes, we didn’t really think about that whole tricky hemisphere thing. I mean, you’d just assume Brazil would be warm, wouldn’t you? Well, it’s not.

We had two days of sun during which we sat on the beach sipping coconuts and praying we’d get tans (we didn’t) so that we wouldn’t have the embarrassment of returning home after our epic journey with the same pasty skin we left with (we did). Also most of the major sights in Rio i.e. going up Sugarloaf Mountain, seeing Christ the Redeemer, paragliding onto Copacabana Beach... require sunlight and clear skies to do them justice. So we didn’t do them. Hence, we slipped into living a life of luxury…

2- I didn’t get a full Brazilian Wax.So, instead of being cultural, we thought “When in Brazil…” and went to a nearby salon. But then… it just looked painful. So I wimped out and didn’t go the whole hog. This trip to the salon marked the beginning of…

3-We finally snapped from months of tight budgeting and, with the end in sight, went mad.Not only did we spend all our remaining money at Ipanema market (why?!) and on far too much food (so we not only returned home pale, but also fat). Oh no, we then got depressed about it. Feeling depressed, we decided to treat ourselves. And that’s how we found ourselves sipping drinks inside the iconic Copacabana Palace Hotel with the rich and famous. Not only this, but after hours of demanding to be brought more complimentary snacks by the disgruntled-looking waiters, we snuck into the hotel to look around. Upon leaving, we decided to visit the H. Stern jewellery shop next door. Here we were promptly mistaken for guests and offered a free tour of the H. Stern diamond headquarters, which we accepted. The next day we got all dressed up in nice dresses and accepted our chauffeured taxi to the HQ, where we got shown around and then allowed to try on diamonds in a private consultation, before we asked if there was anything we’d like to have put aside (there wasn’t). And then…

4-We sunk to new lows.We snuck into another hotel, where we had a friend staying waiting for her family to arrive the following day, and not only abused their room service and spa facilities but also stole leftover room service people had left in the corridors to have taken away. I wish I was lying. Sadly the extent to our travelling failure does not end here.

5-Our crazy nights out on the Rio party scene didn’t go… as planned.When we went to the infamous Lapa Street Party, it rained. And then street children tried to mug us. Also, we didn’t visit Rio at Carnivale time. So instead we went to a practice. Which was cool, expect one friend got so drunk I had to escort her home in a taxi. So there you have it. I need to go back to Rio, and do it right this time!

Is Rio de Janeiro is safe to travel to and what are the considerations? You can also learn more about Brazil from riobraziltravels.com.