I got a bit emotional saying bye to Mum and Dad but knowing we´ll see them in 4 months made it easier. Terminal 5 was really swanky and James had to steer me out of Jack Wills I couldn´t justify anything even with duty free prices. After a short train ride we got to our gate and then onto the first flight of the trip. The up grade to...... emergency exit seats was well worth it. We made friends with the air hostess and James got his money worth of film watching. After just over 11 hours we arrived in Rio, the bags were ready and we started haggling for our taxi fare. It wasn´t chaep but the journey was pretty long. I got excited when I spotted a nice looking cathedral but was out done by James when he pointed out Christ himself lit up high on the mountain, I´m sure a little wee came out I was so excited that I have finally seen Christ the Redeemer in real life!

Lemon Spirit Hostel is nice, lots of friendly people and a great location, one block from the beach in what seems to be the nicest area of Rio. We have already booked another 4 nights, moving to the noiser ground floor though, could be a mistake.

This morning we got up and had a continental style breakfast and then went for a walk along the road, on Sunday it is closed for traffic and there are Brazilians roller skating, cycling, skateboarding, running, skipping and walking up and down the road. Ipanema and Leblon beach are lovely with games of Volleyball (yay!) and footvolleyball (not sure of the actual name) which is really impressive. We walked all the way to ther other side of Ipanema and to a Hippie market which seemed very upmarket, almost like a arts and craft fair.

After finally finding a ATM which did not accept out Travelex card (annoying) we got money out and paid for our evening entertainment- a football match. It was awesome, I think I watched the football, which was only slightly better in quality than Cambridge, for about 40 percent of the time and the crazy crazy supporters for the rest. James had bought me a little flag which was a bit pathetic next to the 10 ft tall ones the Brazilians were using but at least it will fit in out bags. The chants are still ringing in my head even though I understood about two words the rest I made up e.g. "Dally Dally Proscuitto, Dally Dally potato flow!". Hoping to meet with two people from the trip tomorrow night for a traditional Brazilian BBQ.