Quick update on Rio - Flew into Galeo airport from Maceio, took 2 and half hours, after which we got the bus to Copacobana district where we are staying. The bus ride was so bumpy and I'd only had about 2 hours sleep all night so I felt like I was going to kill someone, persevered for a little while though, had breakfast, went to internet cafe, got locked out for an hour and finally went to sleep until about 6.30pm after that we went over to Ipanema area to a cheap restaurant which had the funniest translated English menu I've ever seen, a jug of sangria was translated to a jar of bleeding! Had to have it after that!! Saw the street fight dance that they do here, it’s so cool, they just do it in the middle of the road while the cars are trying to get past they are flipping and jumping and all to the rhythm of a strange wooden string instrument I’ve never seen before.

Went onto an Irish pub called Shenanigans which had live music, there were lots of Americans, Canadians and German people in there, still no English people anywhere?? They all have these beer ‘controle’ things here where you have bit of paper with it all marked down and you pay when you leave so you know how much you have drank and how much you need to pay which is a brilliant idea until you drop the bit of paper down the loo or something!!

The first night was also the night we found the cockroaches! The first one I saw and Tiago killed with a flip flop, everyone went to bed thinking that it was all over but then I heard Sam screaming in the loo and knew another one had appeared. We decided rather than wake Tiago we would tackle it on our own as it was a reasonably small one and after half an hour or running towards it and then away from it with a broom (Sam) and a frying pan (me) I managed to kill it! Just when I thought it was all over I went into the toilet and the biggest ‘cockaracha’ I’ve ever seen was twitching it’s feelers at me! We tried to kill Bob (we named this one) but to no avail, he escaped under Tiagos bedroom door and we couldn’t wake him up so went to be bed pre-checking the floor, stuffing a towel under the door, slept with the light on and the broom and pan with us!

Been to Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf mountain) where part of the bond film Moonraker was filmed up on the cable cars, took loadsa pics finally (haven’t been to keen to take my camera out at night here shame as lack of pics) the views were beautiful and it was really hot and sunny and just proves Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Saw lizards and butterflies up on the mountain, Colin saw a monkey but I didn’t see any! We attempted to walk around the base of the sugarloaf but only got halfway as it gets a bit narrow and dangerous, there’s loads of people with proper hiking and climbing gear for this so gave up, plus I'm not so good in up hill trekking in rainforest (what remains of the Atlantic rainforest is in Rio). 

The other day we went up to Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer and I finally saw a monkey in a tree he had a little Mohican hairdo! Been to Copacobana and Ipanema beaches, of which Ipanema is cleaner and much nicer. Been Clubbing in what I think is the Lapas district and seen the giant man made lake. I wanted to watch the red bull air race but so did like a million other people so got stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours… in a tunnel as well and I had to sit in the footwell of the car as not enough space...classy bird!

Went to Maracana to see the Rio championship final, Botafogo against Cabofriense, Fogo won of course, that was really good fun, I recommend going to see a match even if you don’t like football, you can drink, smoke, shout, yell and get involved! Tried to learn Samba one night unsuccessfully and learnt that no one can dirty dance like the Brasilians can! Some of the music when translated is pure filth!

Another place to recommend going is Rio Scenarium, if you get of the Rio metro at Cinelandia and walk to the bohemian area then this club is like the most amazing place I've ever been! It's like got 4 floors, and it's like a museum, they have everything and anything in here from bikes to musical instruments, telephone boxes, pianos, African statues, and the 7 dwarves!! Mentalist!

P.s. I still love Guarana!!