Easter has been and gone and Patrick and I are on our own again - for a while at least. A friend from Romanno Bridge, Maria Halliday, spent 10 days with us for some r&r after sight-seeing in Peru and a strenuous trek to Machu Pichu. It was great to see a familiar face from Scotland and to catch up with news of Maria's family and mutual friends. We showed her some of the Rio landmarks, tasted some of the local 'delicacies' such as pastels and caipirinhas and introduced her to the joys of bus travel in Rio and Brazilian standards of service.
Over the bank holiday weekend we had a few days away in Paraty, a very attractive old colonial town 4 hours down the coast from here. The weather was good and we enjoyed the beaches, beautiful coastline, old churches, interesting shops and pretty, (low-rise!) brightly coloured houses. The town and surrounding area were green, clean & quiet and surprisingly uncrowded for the Easter weekend. The bus journey to and from Rio runs close to the coast most of the way (sort of like Newcastle to Edinburgh by train, only tropical) through verdant countryside with views of outlying islands. The only blot on the horizon being the existence of two(!) nuclear power stations.
Hugo is presently on the Amazon! His attempt to enter the job market in Brazil proved abortive as the project he was assigned to was going nowhere fast and he decided to cut his losses, do a bit more travelling and then head back to Europe where he reckons his employment chances will be better. He's flown up to Belem, is travelling on a passenger boat up the Amazon for a few days and then flying back from Manaus to spend a few last days in Rio.
Two recent incidents show that, for all the glamour and supposed progress, Rio continues to be a dangerous place to live. Two American students were kidnapped last week while on a van in Copacabana, taken to a cashpoint and forced to withdraw money before being beaten up and raped. And earlier this week a bus came off a flyover in Rio, resulting in 7 deaths. Not unexpectedly, it's looking as if the cause of the accident was the driver arguing with a passenger who was complaining that the driver's excessive speed had meant that he'd missed his stop. Patrick and I continue to use the local buses but are constantly amazed how badly (and dangerously) many of them are driven and how little regulation there appears to be. You take your life in your hands every time you travel in one.
Happy days....