Introduction To Brazil

Okay, so just a quick update as this computer does appear to be very popular, the joy of sharing a hostel computer between 20 people. Arrived here in Rio de Jenerio two days ago after a 22hr bus ride from Iguazu Falls. Had a brilliant time there, saw the falls on day 1 and 2 and when we went to book our tickets out found that there was noone available for 4 days so we just proceeded to get very drunk for the next few days. There was a class bunch in the hostel, which was pretty nice itself with a big courtyard and pool. Very sucky thing happened thoughwas that Cathy was uploading her photos onto Flickr and while she had perhaps 30% done someone formatted the entire memory stick which sucked. Luckily she had them saved onto the desktop, except that was deleated when the computer restarted. Long story short we no longer have photos of perhaps the most impressive thing we have seen since we arrived. Kellie-Ann has a few up on her Flickr though so check that out.

We are thinking of spending perhaps five days here in Rio then heading out 150km to sea to an island called Ihre Grande to veg out for a day or two, lots of lovely surf beaches, chill out beaches and treks to do as well. Have to get onto organising that one. Met up with a friend of mine called Bernardo that i met in New Paltz all those years ago. Was pretty cool to see him, went out for a quiet drink last night on the lagoon but might be going for a big night out on Friday. There does be a huge club in the city that he can get us on the Guest List for, might be a larf. Then on the weekend might be meeting up with Carol and Manuel, two other Braziliens i met in New Paltz.

Have to organise a wee bit here as i am nearly halfway through the South American trip. Looking into a few flights to cut down on the travel time, weird how 15 hours seems like a short trip at this stage. Re-evaluating the route we had originally planned, might cut down the Amazon trip and get a flight to the coast. Really looking forward to the Brazilian coast though. Was on Ipenema beach today catching some rays. That was a humbling experience, never saw so many examples of the perfect human form before, dont know if i will be able to go to an Irish beach after that. The plan is to spend the last 2/3 weeks beach hopping from Belem (which is actually on the equator so will be stinking hot) down to Rio. If we time it right i should have enough money for the entire way.

Opening up a bottle of whiskey at the minute, its so god awful hot, around 33*. I also have a confession to make. I have a problem. I also have to apologise to Joan for ever giving her hassle over her Coke addiction, I have become ten times worse. I am now drinking a bottle of coke at least, every day, sometimes more. Just get so hot and crave nothing more than the sweet, sweet tast of a chilled coke, hmmmmmm. Think i will go buy a 2lt bottle for my whiskey.