Rio de Janeiro, the marvellous city! Where to start?? Well, we are actually writing this whilst in Buenos Aires as we are very lazy with this blog business, so many things may be missing...

The views of the city, whether at dizzy heights or on the ground are certainly everything they are made out to be. We only had time to go up Sugar Loaf mountain (and not to the Christ statue) in the 5 or so days that we were there. It was spectacular, if a little nauseating, on the cable car crammed full of people on the way up. Though at least we took the cable car. It turns out that some girls we later met, whilst on a hostel organised trip up there, were made to walk the first ´loaf' during the heat of the day! ha!

Unfortunately the owners of the first hostel werent very good and nobody really spoke English in it, so we found the first few days in Rio quite tough. The language barrier was very difficult to overcome. Our Portuguese is about as good as our Arabic...and vice versa. It seems many people have had the same problems!

We have both found the food very strange too. A typical Brasilian meal consisting of rice, potatoes/chips, sloppy black beans, and fried meat...urgh! Though the abundance of juice bars is nice...if you know what you are ordering! They also have a crazy obsession with chemists. There is at least one on every street? Bizarre!

To cut a long story short - the highlight of our stay in Rio has probably been a night out at the street party in Lapa. It was one massive crazy street party, with lots of caipirinha to drink - though only two was enough we felt, the next morning!! Our English crowd certainly showed themselves up with their rubbish dancing, amongst samba-ing latino´s! Unfortunately, it wasn´t safe enough to take photo´s - as is the case in most parts of the city!! :(

On our last day in Rio we took the ´Bonde´ (tram) up the hillside to the district of Santa Teresa...an up and coming Bohemian quarter. The tram was quaint but quite rickety, and the journey was nerve-racking as it went along the edge of favela´s/shanty towns. We didnt have time to do a proper favela tour, though we inadvertently drove through one on a bus en route to the bus station. It was quite scary driving through a hardcore ghetto!

After Rio we headed to Florianopolis for a few days on a beach, as the Copacabana beach was always rammed full of Carioca´s! In great need of tanning so we dont stand out quite so much!! Apparently many backpackers head to Floripa, as it is stunning and very relaxed (safer!!) It takes 14 hours on a bus. It will be a much needed safety zone. As much as we have loved Rio, we would love to be able to take lots of photo´s of our travels. We have been a bit nervy ever since our ´hilarious´ encounter with a couple of street rats in the Botafogo neighbourhood, Rio. Anna/stone cold steve austin practically wrestled a boy to the ground for a few drops of Sprite, after he accosted her in the street.lol.