Ok so from looking at the stunning waterfalls in Iguazu we hopped it back on a bus ready to head to Rio. We had to catch our bus after the Brazilian border so jumped in a taxi and had the quickest, easiest border crossing ever (no one with guns checking for drugs and no questions asked in a language we don't understand!) We arrived at the bus station waiting for our plush 24 hour bus journey as buses in Argentina and Brazil are said to be amazing....or maybe not! Our bus rocked up in the Brazilian side of Iguazu and we had to ask about 3 times if it was ours, the disbelief on our faces said it all, I didn't think it would be able to pull out of the bus depo never mind drive for 24 hours straight! Also at this time me and Helen had a sinking feeling that our basic Spanish we had mastered on our travels so far was gonna be absolutely bloody useless in Brazil as Portugese may look slightly like spanish but the pronuciation was completely different! This was also not helped by the fact that the budget was now heavily bashed and we were refusing to pay for a phrase book...back to hand signals again! The bus stopped off on the way at different places to eat and me and hel got our first glance at a xmas tree and giant santa (the Brazilians love xmas being all holy joes!) so this impressed me immensly but with it being only November Helen had banned me from listening to xmas tunes on ipod....bah humbug! Finally after being stuck in traffic for more than an hour while scary police with big guns checked for drugs and took two men off the coach and a flat tyre we finally arrived in the land of big bootys, little thongs, brazillian beach boys and caiprinhas. As soon as we arrived at the mellow yellow hostel we checked out the bar, looking for Dayna and Emma, our two favourite Aussies who we met on our jungle trip in Bolivia. In true Aussie style they were already on the free caiprinhas (the national cocktail of Brazil, given free to all the ladies staying in the hostel, yeehah!) and so to be socialable we obviously ordered a couple ourselves! Unfortunately this particular brand of alcohol had an effect of me likened to the effect stella has on blokes, it made me grumpy, tired and very very drunk....so I ordered another! Sadly after only two of these cocktails, Helen had to very kindly put me to bed where I slept like the dead even in the 30+ degree heat (in a room with no air con it should be noted!) The next day we got up early, had breakfast watching monkeys scamper about in the hostel bar and then headed to see Cristo, or to all the gringos out there, Christ the Redeemer. After getting 3 buses up the steepest of hills and climbing about 200 steps we arrived to see the amazing statue of Christ which over looks the whole of Rio, making the beaches and favelas (Brazilian slums) look tiny. We took some typical touristy photos stood in front of the Cristo and then went for something to eat. Along the way we bumped into one of the workers from the hostel who crept up behind helen and pretended to mug her (she then turned around to see the vision of the hostel worker who looked like a better Enrique Iglasious so clearly she was not complaining! He took the four us to a local restaurant, helped us order and then b*****ed off to let us people watch in peace! Rio is definately the place for people watching with all the local boys looking like models and the ladies having all their booty out! The next day we got the tube to a shopping centre and after this walked to Copacabana beach to see the Rio beach culture which was part beautiful, part jaw dropping as middle aged men walked around in the smallest of speedos and many many ladies of epic proportions were wearing the smallest of thongs, well if you can't beat them...nah! After this we hit the hostel bar again, myself after drinking another deadly cocktail knocking over a drink and an ash tray, deciding to stick to the vodka instead! The next day was pretty productive as we had a wander round the city and then did some laundrey, exciting times! Later on me and Emma got dressed up and headed out to a Favela funk party which happened every Sunday night. Normal favela's are run by drug dealers but this particular one was run by sacked cops...even better! This is where the film City of God takes places which is pretty traumatic so me and Emma were a bit scared, even with our token man with us, Jacob, a lovely Austrian social worker who had never seen the sound of music, clearly I think this needs a mention! The club was packed with a thousand locals, all gathered around a dance floor where some hot male Brazilians were showing off there moves in sync, it was like something out of a step up film! After that the party turned a little scary as gringos were clearly very exciting to the local men who Jacob valiantly tried to keep away from us! Bless! After much booty shaking we went home, planning a trip to next Febuary's carnival if it was anything like that! Sadly we said goodbye to the girls the next day and instead met our lovely Irish friend Tom, who we took with us on a visit to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Typically when we got up there, via two huge bloody cable cars, the clouds where covering all views of the city so we had a drink and watched some crazy monkeys crawl inside our empty cups to get the dregs....clearly alcoholic mammals! That night we wandered down to the beach for some cocktails and dinner...what a difficult life! The next day we hit the local shops, almost dying in the process by having to cross some serious roads, but by the help of a Brazilian lady, aged about ooohh 2 years older than us, we managed to get to the cheap Haviana shop (The infamous flip flops that originate from Brazil and have taken over the world...well in places where they get sunshine!) People had commented during our travels that Rio was a very scary place due to all the muggings etc but we never saw any sign of this, however this shopping area was a very local scene, just at the bottom of a favela and we saw a shed load of homeless people sleeping in the park, which was horrible to see. This didn't dampen our love of Rio and its crazy locals tho, with us both vowing to go back (along with all the rest of South America) pronto! Next stop....Buenos Aires!