Rio in Three Days

Well, we are trying to make the most of Rio, and have done as much as we can in the few days we have, but have fitted it in around sleeping, being lazy and generally doing nothing. On the first day we struggled quite a bit.

After getting up early and taking a walk along the Cococpana and Ipanema beaches (which are beautiful), we visited a market and then decieded to return home to change and go sunbathe. So after a brief nap we emerged from our room at 4.30pm, slightly shiny with suntan cream, armed with books, sunglasses, scanty clothes etc ready to hit the beach. We had already got burnt necks earlier (in my defence- my hair is not normally this short!) so were extra cautious this time around with the lotion. However, our mistake was to not realise that we are in the southern hemisphere, so as we strolled down the road to the beach, in the dark, we felt like idiots. But at least we were shiny idiots so the cars did not hit us.

(Left Copacabana, still buzzing at 2pm)

The last two days we went on the local bus (we feel victorious) to Christ the Redemer and Sugar loaf mountain (photos to follow - i have now found out that we cannot upload pictures here). Both had great views. Nothing that exciting to report, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves (or not as the case is now). Tomorrow we leave for Paraty a 4 hour bus ride south-ish.

Observations on Rio so far.
- everyone has a tiny dog, dressed in an outfit, with bows in their hair, apart from the lady at the beach who had a cockrel in a football jersey on a lead. There are no real dogs.
- the birds at the beach who circle the shore at night are the dead ringers for teridactiles, have i missed the newspaper article about dinosaurs still being alive in South America?
- There are m0re pec implants on Copocabana beach than there are fake boobs. The glamerous string bikini front is a lie! Celulite and wobbly bits are all the rage here.
- You can´t see the Christ the redeemer statue everywhere, and its not that big.
- The tree´s here are massive and very cool.
- Rio´s dont like living in big, beautiful, old houses and they seem to be leaving them to age badly (ie dericlition) in order to live in tower blocks of ugliness.
- The police must have done a good job at shooting all the street kids a few years ago as i havent seen any yet.
- It is ok to do grafitti everywhere here, and not tags, actual good pictures- See below of the one a man did of Xss and I as we were passing through a park.

300 Days of LE!

XSS and I have arrived safely in Rio. It looks the same in the dark as anywhere does so i wont bore you with the details. However, the plane journey- now that was fun.

I did intend to sit down in quiet contemplation and think carefully about what i wanted out of my time away, get some really good questions to think over, etc. But instead i watched the films!! BA have a library of films so there was good choice. I wasted most of my time watching ´Dear John´and ´The Bounty Hunter´both terrible (and not in a good way) romances. I also got to see Invictus which was good but raised loads of questions i wanted to ask my Afrikaans´s friends- what was their old flag like? Do they remember this time? and what are the differences in the national anthems?

I wore my special ´travelling t-shirt´(from the boys section of a Peckham shop, it says Úp, Up and Away!´), which went well with my new haircut lending me to question whether i now look like a 8 year old boy? I can tell you though (seriously), there were many jealous looks in the airport from small children. i saw them looking! It kind of lost its humour airside where everyone was flying somewhere and it seemed like i proudly didn't realise. The general feeling (from Honestly and the Wainwright clan) is that the haircut is ok. At least it will be good on those hot days.
So we will be away for around 300 days, fingers crossed, which for XSS is 300 days of me. Yippee. I think most people who meet XSS after knowing me, have a lot of respect for him automatically as they realise how patient he must be, to be able to tolerate the ADD personailty that i am. Here is a picture of XSS enjoying our 4th conversation around whether i look like a 8 year old boy or not with my new haircut.

We arrived fine and got someone from the hostel to pick us up. The room is fine, in a nice part of town, now to explore. We only have 3 days until we move on to Paraty.