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'...

Patrick took a field trip with colleagues from BG to NE Brazil. The area was much flatter than Rio and we saw many fields of sugar around Aracaju and Maceio. We went to a number of large cement quarries to look at carbonates. It was an interesting trip involving a 2hr flight and a 3hr bus ride between the two cities. Good to get some samples to work on! Friday evening we went to the birthday of a new Dutch friend of Kate's and chatted with Dutch, French, Swedes ...

This is going to be a just-Kate entry as Patrick is on a 3 day field trip up near Salvador - more on that when he returns I'm sure. So here's a resume of what we've been up to. We had a lovely walk last weekend along a different part of the beach in Rio. We started at Cinelandia in the downtown area to catch the Yann Arthus Bertrand exhibition that has been installed in the square there as part of Rio+20. (Probably the least that's said about what that's likely ...

A day on the beach and a good swim in the sea - after 3 weekends of rain - very pleasant change! Unfortunately, I then watched Liverpool v Chelsea which wasn't a happy FA Cup Final for us! After that we we to see the free concert along the beach at Arpoador. We heard 2 bands called Mulheres do Chico & Samba n Roll if anyone's interested. Ol? No, we hadn't heard of them either but they were very well received by the audience of Cariocas of all ages on the bea...