Greetings from Rio - again - though i´ve actually done something since i last wrote. Firstly, though - Copacabana - i´m staying on the sea front and it´s nice to see the Atlantic Ocean blue rather than grey. The beach front is 4km long - quite handy to know after you´ve walked up & down it a few times - i racked up over 20km on my first day. Considering that i´d like to lose 15kg & the two bags under my eyes during this trip i might just get there if i keep up that amount of walking every day....

Copacabana is like a sunnier Blackpool - weather aside - oh & the nice beach - it´s hard to see why it is so famous but there you go. The area was originally called Sacopenapa - but was then named after the church of the Virgin of Copacabana (the patron saint of Bolivia) that was built in the mid-18th century. Today it is home to a 4km row of dreary apartment blocks & hotels that all seem to have been thrown up in the same month sometime in the 1970´s - and all designed by the London firm of architects Blind, Leading & Blind (incorporating Rule, Straight & Line)......

Activities on the beach liven it up somewhat - they take beach volley-ball veeerry seriously here but don´t let your imaginations run riot - or - if you do then coming here will spoil the image you have.......

Another popular pastime here is walking the dog - either your own dog or someone else´s - a lot of the dogs are those nasty yappy little things - you do see the occasional proper dog - you also see dogs with shoes.....

I am fascinated by the number of Frigate birds - amazing birds with huge wingspans that just circle & wheel & occasionally dive - for all the world like a squadron of mini-stealth bombers (if you´ve seen a stealth bomber you´ll know what i mean). Frigate birds can´t walk very well & can´t take off from water or flat land - they tend to nest on craggy cliff sides so that that they can just lurch into the wind & let the thermals do the rest. They often remain airborne for a week at a time - snatching fishes that break the surface of the sea (Little Fish: ¨hmmm - wonder what´s going on up there? Might just pop my head out of the water and take a quick - oops...¨)

Anyway, Frigates aside, Rio can also claim the world´s skankiest pigeons as a claim to fame. Nice.

Anyone remember Skol? Yes - that dreadful lager-beer that was foisted upon the English by Allied Brewers back in the 1980´s - well, you can get it here. Like all Brazilian beers it is made with a mix of cereals - not the end of the world in itself - but they all also contain anti-oxidants & stabilisers - and yes they are all uniformly bad. There´s clearly a hop-shortage here, too. Not even properly cold either. The Brazilian brewing industry is dominated by that nice Belgian company - so there´s no chance that the quality of beers here will improve. Still - that´ll also help in the battle to lose those 15kg......

Yesterday i went to Corcovado that has the statue of Jesus on it. The mountain is 710m high and a big staue of a very stern Jesus looks down over the good folk of Rio. We went up the mountain in a funicular - Swiss, obviously - which was quite fun. Amazing views from the top, as you can imagine. The statue was finished in 1931 - the one in Lisbon was finished in 1959 in case you were wondering which came first.

We saw the 700-metre ¨¨street¨¨ that was created to host the Rio Carnival - the idea being that each team that enters has to dance along the 700 meteres in no-less than 1hr & 10 minutes and no more than 1hr & 20 minutes. The street - such as it is - is lined with tiered seating either side. And you thought the carnival took place..... - travel´n´learn, folks (another illusion shattered) :-/

For lovers of irony the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Sebastian in Rio was inspired by an Inca design - and is quite impressive - maybe it helps with the guilt? Might explain the walls that appear to drip blood in April, June and November - which is a mystery they´ve never cleared up.....

After the cathedral we went to the Sugar Loaf Mountain - so named after the sugar loaves that the colonialists imported from the Azores & Madeira (back in the days when they imported sugar). Hmmm - the Azores - they sound like a great place for a holiday :-/

Anyway, you go up to the summit in two cable cars - which for nervous folk (Carla) can be quite unnerving - the first stage takes you to the Urca Mountain & the second one takes you up to the Sugar Loaf Mountain itself. Now this is ¨¨only¨¨ 396 metres high - but you get more of an idea of the city from there than Corcovado - or at least i think you do. In addition to the views over the city & sea you can also watch the vultures - i think they are black vultures but doubtless someone out there knows for sure - and the Frigate birds - just amazing.

Well, this is my last day in Rio - and i´m looking forward to leaving - the next stop is The Fonz at Iguacu - where Happy Days is re-enacted every night (i do hope not) (heyyy) - and there i hope the trip will begin properly......