OK so I never managed to upload any photos and I said I had in the last blog but we had problems with the computers in the internet cafe we were in so hopefully we can get them uploaded now.

So, what have we been up to in the last few days? Basically relaxing. We both came down with a cold over the weekend so spent a day in the apartment which helped us loads. At least it wasn´t the flu with I think the UK has stopped talking about now but people here are still being cautious - the airports especially. I forgot to mention before entering Panama at the airport, everyone got their face checked through a kind of thermal imagining camera and apparently if your eyes appeared green, you had flu symptoms. You also have to complete a declaration that you don´t have any symptoms upon entering a country. It might be different leaving Rio and may have calmed down now.

Anyway I thought I´d spend some time writing about Rio and things I have picked up on. It is quite difficult to get a beer that´s alcoholic... we discovered this when we kept getting light beer when ordering at a bar, and when checking in the supermarket, discovered it was non-alcoholic. Not that we need alcohol of course! The only alcoholic beer we have found so far (because all the tourists were drinking it) is ´´Skol´´ which I am sure I have seen somewhere else... I´ll need to look that up.

What else... we went for a look round the clothes shops the other day (I convinced AJ since I hadn´t been in ages!) Shopping malls are very hard to come across basically because you can´t see them. On looking hard enough, they are like apartment blocks. You got past a reception and see a board telling you what shops are on what floor. There are usually 12 floors of shops and all the shops are very small with one item on display - idea being, you ask for it in your size and they get it from the back of the shop.

We have spent a couple of days at the beach as well. The waves here are the biggest I´ve come across. We went for a swim and AJ taught me how to body surf the wave which was loads of fun. It´s a weird experience being in the water with a big wave coming towards you and you have to dive through it to get past it. We literally were swimming with the fishes and saw lots of fish ´riding´ the waves with us which was amazing.

Anyway, I´m away to upload the photos now and fingers crossed won´t come across any problems this time. Oh, that´s another thing... I am loving onions now which is strange because I have never liked them before... and no it´s definately not a craving before anyone gets any ideas!

OK, speak again soon.

Lee-Ann and AJ