Carnival con! In February Rio has its world famous carnival- it's actually travels down a purpose built road , with seating either side 7 pm - 6am- not the main streets - what a con! Apparently there are other carnival events , strictly monitored and organised starting from one beach at 4 pm and moving through to the others- noise in theses residential areas have to be finished by 8 pm! I still think there will be plenty drinking going on after that and the atm...

Interesting facts about Brazil- 191 million people Discovered by Portuguese explorer who pulled into land to avoid a storm - thought it was a river and it was January so called it Rio de Janeiro ( river of January) Rio was the capital until 1960- now Brasilia is. Language - Portuguese - who's royal family fled in 1806 to avoid Napoleon - finally turned into a republic in a bloodless takeover by the army to control and give safety and structure to the masses ....

Monday night and our for a classic Churrascaria meal. Went for a drink first at a great bar called the Mud hut next door where I finally got my Guiness. Churrascaria is a meat and fish all you can eat - Brazilian style. Fantastic salad bar, and every meat and fish you can think of comes out on a huge skew , freshly cooked and unbelievably tasty - my favourite was the Amazon fish. Taxi home , drink on the hotel roof around the pool , then off for an early night,...

it's Sunday - let's have some fun and make all the traffic go on the other side of the road for a laugh. That's Rio- today they close the three lanes nearest the beaches for pedestrians only - and get the rest of the traffic to go the wrong way , and one way only , on the opposite side of the road! They even have two sets of traffic lights facing two ways- normal days and Sunday's!. You might expect Carnage - but they make it work seamlessly- well done Brazil. ...

Off out tonight to ipanema and a fish restaurant- lovely ambiance, average food- bloody hefty bill - followed by a thunder and lightening show like no ones business. Hopefully it will clear the skies for another fantastic day tomorrow- Rio's Spring has started - forecast 33 degrees- Vania our guide blames global warming!