Hotel Arpoador Inn Rio de Janeiro

... its been a little cooler (and i mean only a little bit cooler!!). We´ve had the usual things of locals telling us when to get of buses (as its been obvious where we´ve been going!!) and telling us to put our big tourist maps aways as apparently this is like having a big sticker on yer forehead saying rob me please!! It was also quite embarrassing when we had to ask in the hsbc bacnk in rio how to use our bank card - we were down to our ...

... the awnings of a grocers.

People from Rio, they like to be called Cariocas but I refuse, are racist. In virtually every shop or restaurant we went in we received worse treatment from the staff than Rodney King got from the LAPD. They glare at you with a barely disguised look of contempt that tells you in no uncertain terms that they would prefer this transaction be taking place in a dark alleyway rather than over the counter of a ...

... brighter weather but are running out of Rio time. We'll probably book into another hostel tomorrow closer to our Saturday, Intrepid trip rendevouz point hotel in Copacabana. We're currently interneting downstairs from a sex shop. But there are various Bible verses and what we think are warnings against looking at unsavoury materials because God lives here (all in Portuguese)!

Stay tuned for another amazing adventure, hopefully some time this week.

i don´t intend to write much however, today was a busy/long/very random day. i woke up early, well actually i woke up twice early... the first time cause my drunkend brazilian roomates decided to come home as the sunshine began to come into the room... put earplugs in and went back to sleep and woke up not long after... the hostel was quiet and i was one of two people up, at ebreakfast outside on the patio. off to the bus station to buy my ticket for ...

... one of the players will bottle the challenge. These opinions are based only on 1 game though, so are perhaps massive generalisations about Brazilian football.

The next day was the official end of the South America tour. We had to check out of our nice hotel at 12 and we'd booked into Mellow Yellow hostel, which was close by but we didn't think it was close enough to walk. We asked the hotel to order us 2 taxis to take us. We got in, they didn't know where the ...

We woke up around 11 feeling pretty rough from the events of going big the night before. The girls who we went on the boat trip with had planned to do a ´Top Tour´, taking a bus ride around the main attractions in Rio DeJaneiro. Alegra (the overly nice and somewhat condescending Hostel owner) made us promise we would go on the tour and told us to ´Run straight down to the bank for money.´ so we did. This was a mission and a half which proved Egan had ...

... s a nice café there with a great view of the whole beach and we rested with coffee and enjoyed the view. Then we walked on to Ipanema, the next beach over and enjoyed the view and posh restaurants and pubs. Ipanema turns into Leblon after a small canal. We walked a lot that day and it was sooooo hot. We stopped for lunch and had Bobo de camaraos (I think) which is a delicious coconut milk dish with shrimp. Once thing that I found Brazilians lying ...

... was closed for business due to Ash Wednesday (well prob more likely it was public holiday cos everyone was destroyed after carnaval). Went to see the Liverpool v Real Madrid match (pool won with a benayoun goal if ye're interested). Great win, at the bernabeu no less. Then, keepin up the football them, I went to the maracana wed night to see Fluminense v Botafogo, Botafogo won 1-0. Amazing atmosphere there, even though it was only half full (still about 40-50k people there ...

... had to pay another 10 Reals each for the priviledge. Everyone wants a slice of the tourists!

With the paperwork completed we were asked to stand on the promenade and wait for our instructor.



We had to wait 10 minutes (it could have been worse) and then a handsome ...

... said "Hello". It brightened up my day. Her name is Lizeth and she´s from Panama. It´s very comforting to meet friendly people from all over the world. 3. While walking on the streets of Foz do Iguaçu, and old man tripped on the sidewalk. Helping him up, I asked "Vocé esta bem, senhor?". He replied, "Ta Bem ta bem". After making sure he´s alright, he was telling me something which of course I didn´t understand. I apologized and said, "Desculpe, Eu não entendu ...