Stalled in Rio....

There are worse places to be stuck waiting for a plane home I suppose... Am back in lovely, sunny Rio now after sitting it out for a week in the lovely but mostly grey Paraty further down the coast. As I said in the last entry, I`ve kind of been having a holiday from travelling over the last two weeks since I decided to come home a bit early and end the trip here in Brazil.

So Rio state has now been home for the last three and a bit weeks taking in Saquarema way back when Jen was in tow, then Ilha Grande, Paraty and now back to Rio. Has been lovely and relaxing taking it so slowly and spending plenty of time in places rather than racing through. Although the weather has been a tad disappointing, particularly Paraty where I only managed one and a half days of sun out of seven. Tan panic was really starting to set in for a while back there.....

But I stuck it out mainly cos I was still waiting for info on my flight home and it was a really nice hostel (and cheap!) so there were a gang of us refusing to budge until we had seen Paraty in the sun. Well we did mangage a super boat trip on the one good day and were whisked aound the tons of beautiful islands and amazing beaches all around the coast there, snorkelling and swimming and all the usual tropical boat cruise type antics. And apart from that, well I certainly caught up with my reading....

So then it was the rather exciting penultimate bag pack (cannot wait to unload that thing for the very last time) for the bus ride back to Rio and the final negotiations with the guys in the Qantas office (Tiago and Sudan) who are now my best friends I speak to them so often and they are so nice with me it`s silly. Has been the most ridiculous saga trying to get home. There`s only three BA flights a week from Rio to Heathrow and they`re all chocka, like all the time. So afer an unsuccessful wait and see period I ended up being put on standby for the next three departures out.

And I have a confession in that I was actually offered a flight for Wednesday (5th) but I only found this out on Monday when I`d just got to Rio... So I tentatively asked if I could go back on the standby list for Saturday and Tiago was in complete agreement that it would be such a shame to leave Rio now the weather has turned and it`s wall to wall sunshine as far as the BBC weather forecast can see.

So hopefully will be in transit this Saturday, and if not then Monday, and if not then I may have to start walking up and down the beach selling drinks or ice creams or bikinis or henna tatoos with the millions of other hawkers doing likewise to see me through the final days of the trip.

Money being a bit tight I have of course been spending a lot of time at the beach as this is a free activity and therefore the responsible thing to do. The guys that sell stuff are absolutely hilarious and all part of the Ipanema beach experience which just never gets boring such is the people watching feast on offer. Everyone at the hostel has had similarly bad weather over the past couple of weeks so there is always a big gang of us racing off after breakfast and meeting near lifeguard station number 9 to bake the day away....

I will attempt to prize myself off the sand for some of my time here however, will report back any major sightseeing efforts in the next - and potentially last - entry!