Rio baby! Gemandlobsbigadventure finally got off the ground on with a visit to the famous Copacabana beach. We both looked like typical brits with very pale skin, and so all and sundry were trying to sell us stuff the whole time! Copacabana beach definitely lived up to its reputation, is beautiful sand and sea though a little bit lively on the surf front. We are going to test out Ipanema beahc today, purely for scientific reasons of course. the hostel we~re staying at is pretty cool, and we got to watch the champions league final in the bar, and had a rather stunning bbq afterwards. needless to say the bar staff were alot happier about the result than most of us staying here!! we're going to see some real football tonight, the brazillian cup semi final apparently, which while not likely to be anywhere near the standard of the mighty brentford fc, will have to do for now... hope all's going well back at home, and you're all enjoying work. we're hoping to get some pictures up at the weekend, but we'll see how it goes. don't want to get you all too jealous in one go! right we're off to the beach... write again soon, lots of love, Lisa and Gem xx x x xx