Ok this is the second time I have written all this as it messed up...it was funnier and better the first time so you´ll have to imagine that....! Oh yeah and a gunshot went off whilst I was writing it which I noted but it might not happen again so I´ll just tell you that bit now... Anyway deep breath and I´ll try again....

Although it is really hot in the day (26 degrees) it is quite chilly in the evenings so Charles was woken in the middle of the night by me trying to get my head into the foot end of my sleeping bag and falling out of the bed. We are still not quite on track with the timezone and our sleep patterns, so such kerfuffles are very unwelcome and today has been quite a tired day.. Hopefully it will be better sleep tonight....

Our hostel is lovely- it´s in Santa Theresa which is a bomhemian arty place in the mountains and it has a little pizzeria downstairs that has live music and is a hive of activity for the locals in the evenings. There are just a couple of rooms upstairs leading off a terrace that faces onto the road so the people in the park opposite merrily point and laugh as you effectvely have to walk down the street when you go to and from the shower in your towel! Breakfast of bread and plastic cheese are included but I´m sticking to the yummy cheap juice bars on every corner.

Yesterday we walked out and went exploring- everything was quite shut up with it being a Sunday but we ended up in what appeared to be a cat park. It was a beautiful park with streams and ponds but it was also jam packed with cats- the weird thing was that they didn´t just seem like strays as there were little shelters for them with food and water. As you can imagine there were some very cute miaowing kittens that you just wanted to scoop up and take home- lucky we´ve had our rabies jabs! There were also these other weird animals that neither of us had ever seen before that were like big brown rats with kangaroo legs...we´ll have to do some research into those ones and find out what they´re called. Any ideas welcome..

We then jumped on a bus to Copa Copacabana beach and I finally got to see the subject of the song I have been annoying everyone with for weeks! It´s a very big long beach alright and is quite amazing surrounded by mountains but the bits that aren´t mountains are high rises so it´s not the cleanest nor the most beautiful beach in the world. It definately gave us a taste of Brazil though- men in speedos and women in far too tight lycra no matter what their size! Charles developed some serious blisters on his London normally Nike Trainered feet and so we headed back to the hostel- when we got here it was full of Carioca´s (locals) dancing to live guitar music so we sat and had a pizza and enjoyed the show.

Rio is such an amazing place built in between mountains so today we felt that we wanted to get up high and see it all. there are 2 options for doing this- a cable car up the sugar loaf (which looks a bit like the one in Abergavenny) or to go up and visit Christ the Redeemer in his legendary position overlooking the city. We decided today was the day to visit Jesus so off we set in another local bus for an interesting ride. To be honest I´m sure we´re going to have a million crazy bus rides around the world but the main thing of note on this one was the lack of suspension so severe that it kept causing us to fall of the seat!

To get up and sit at Christ´s feet you take a beautiful old cog train ride for 20 minutes through park that was reforested in the 20´s after they used the mountain to provuide water for the city. it is now the largest National park within a city and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was so beautiful and you´re so distracted by the plants, trees and local life that you don´t quite think about how high you´re going until you emerge at the top- it really is breathtaking and the height that you are above the city is extraordinary. The figure itself is huge (700ft) and it´s hard to even get it in a picture without lying down on the floor. I never realised that there was a little chapel inside it and I can see that it must be a very special place if you are a Christian because it takes your breath away.

In the cafe we fed Mango to the monkeys and what I think were ring tailed lemars...they call them Quati. They pop out the jungle and are very sweet- jumping up at your legs when they can see you´re falling for them and might give your lunch away! Then the clouds started looming ominously and it got a bit chilly so we jumped back on the train for another stunning ride down.

So we´ve been in Brasil 48 hours now and it still hasn´t quite sunk in how long we will be away for! It´s amazing here but we were very naive and seriously underestimated how few people would speak any English. It makes me feel horrible that we´re arrogant enough to arrive in someone´s country without bothering to learn the language but everyone is very jovial about it and we have had some brilliant games of charades! I just can´t imagine bus drivers in London acting out whether you want a single or return ticket....for a start you probably wouldn´t get that far before they´d chucked you off for not having one..! Lovely charles stops to tell everyone who speaks to us in passing that he doesn´t speak portugese (or Brazilian as he said to a man yesterday) this makes them think he´s trying to ask them something as they don-t understand him and it-s a bit of a vicious circle as they both stand there trying to work out what the hell the other is saying- hilarious on the sidelines!

Anyway we´re going to try and upload some photos now so you´ll be able to see the new short and curly locks...opinions please (but only nice ones as I´m not sure myself yet!)

Loadsa Love to everyone please keep writing us little messages or emails we love seeing them xxx