It's Rio Baby!! Well we survived the 6 hours from Sao Paulo, the bus had air con, and the views were amazing. They didn't come out very well on the camera though! It's a few degrees warmer in Rio, which is great when your carrying a rucksack (ok no sympathy expected). The Ipanema Beach House is great, we're two blocks away from Ipanema Beach, it's the posh end of town you know. There's a good crowd here, so we've been mainly drinkin and sunbathing! We've been spending time on the beach watching the locals play volleyball and footie tennis (showoffs). Thought about showing them the john Smiths "Ave It" technique. The sea has really strong breaks, which can knock you off your feet, not seen any fish & chips shops yet! The highlight so far is the trip to the Maracana Stadium, to watch a local cup game. The fans are crazy, the samba drums play all game. One of the local fans translated some of the songs, we thought Villa and blues fans were rude to each other!! The ground is HUGE, it only holds 120,000 people now, for Peles last game there were 200,000 fans. The beer sellers kept us fuelled, which helped cause it was a pants game. It finished 0-0 then went straight to penalties. Our adopted team won 3-2, then it was carnival time, we got vertually carrying along by the crowd. Went up to see the statue of Christ The Redeemer, the views of Rio are fantastic, the wind up at 700 metres is pretty strong, hence the crazy mullet look. The statue wasn't as imposing from the beach as we thought, but it certainly is when you stand at his feet, he's 30 metres tall !! We're off to explore other parts of Rio, so watch out for the next installment