July has been "Musica no Museu" month in Rio with the emphasis on old music and we went to 3 music events in interesting venues; Museu de Arte Moderna (Indian), Justica Federal (Harpsicord and Recorder) and Museu Internacional de Arte Naif (Madrigals). The second concert was the most pleasing in an interesting old Court of Session room. The third one was in a gallery surounded by naive paintings that are so Brazilian. At the weekend P was inspired to take up a...

This sunday is dryer than our first day back a week ago but it's definitely "winter" out here now. Penguins have even turned up on Ipanema beach! (We do realise though that it's all relative and are aware what a rubbish summer the UK is having...) We're getting fewer sunny days and the air temperature is much cooler but we had 2 lovely blue days last week which made us aware just how hot it had been when we arrived back in January. We've discovered that July i...

Well, we're back from Brasilia now and thinking about preparing for our trip back to the UK at the weekend. Rio while we were away was wet and windy so we were lucky to escape the bad weather. Patrick was off work on thursday & friday because of the Corpus Christi public holiday so we spent half a day exploring photogenic Santa Teresa and ended up having a late lunch in a nice seafood restaurant there. The bus trip from Rio to Brasilia was meant to take 17...

Thought I'd post another blog entry before we set off to Brazilia at the end of the week. Hugo is off exploring the delights of Rio nightlife with Brazilian contacts he's made out here through his couch-surfing network. He's proving a very enterprising visitor. The morning after he arrived he left our flat for a run without either a map or a phone but duly got himself back here after an hour or so. He has fortunately inherited Patrick's inbuilt sat-nav and has...

Here's a last blog entry before Hugo arrives tomorrow evening as otherwise there'll be a big gap. It's very exciting to think we're going to have our first visitor and I'm looking forward to seeing Brazil through a newcomer's eyes as I think the novelty has inevitably worn off for us now. I've had quite a quiet week which is probably just as well as I've had a filthy cold and practically no voice as a result. As someone who doesn't reckon to get ill, I hope I'...