Quality Hotel Niteroi

... were crammed in to seat-less terraces. Incidentally my beloved a-ha set a world record here for a paying concert audience in 1991 - playing to 198,000 people.

There are 3 sections of hardcore Flamengo fans in sight - lively and drumming and singing along to various uplifting tunes - less aggressive than the english football chants - they seem to be more carnival than hooligan. Flamengo go one goal down and although the game is ...

... told that if we got ready quick enough we could get on the rave boat around copacabana and ipanema ...

... and lime squash together, YUCK! but then thats me can´t drink spirits for anything but he´s loving it its R$5 which is round 2euro! nice eh! K think I´m gona head out there, get a beer on the way and c whats goin on! There is talk bout other people in the hostel goin to a Favalas Party, we´l c bout that one not so sur!! K over and out from me, until nxt time Mir x Pssst thanks for the comments Kerry and Fez!! Speak up people we miss u guys!!

... understand the spoken word from basic Spanish is a nightmare) to take much notice anyway. I eventually lose Tim in the melee and the locals with English leave for another venue, leaving me with Nathalia. We are getting on super at this stage, almost fully communicating - my Spanish improves after a few beers I think and she is beginning to understand a bit better. Its bloody good fun to boot. I end up back in my hotel scratcher at one in the morning chewing on some form ...

... good to have someone who knew where to go, where to avoid and how to make the most of our evenings. Unfortuneately, I partied a little later than I probably should have on my last night in Rio and only got 3 hours sleep before embarking on a 21 hour journey that turned into a 25 hour journey, oops! The first bus I got from Rio broke down less than an hour after leaving Rio. They managed to repair the bus, with the help of some of the passengers, but the air conditioning wouldn't work ...

In the morning managed to go to a Travel Agent and secure a cheap flight to Salvador for Carnivale. Also managed to find accomodation with 3 other Norwegian guys staying at the Ipanema Beach Hostel with me. I have also booked 5 days at Ilha Grande before Carnivale to chill out. In the Afternoon spent 2 hours in the surf bodysurfing in the fantastic clear water of Ipanema beach.

... the beach. I thought our whole two hours was going to suck, but really it ended up improving. My trusty beach bum of an instuctor told me he was not letting me leave unless I tried again. Thank goodness he made me go back because it was A LOT better the second time around. I handled the water better this time and even made it up to catch a wave. Ok after I `caught´ the wave I fell right over but it was still a fun time! Its about 5 oclock right now in ...

... I felt like I was on fricken sixth street it was hillarious, apparently there is no language more universal then that of 50 cent. Even more hillarious was watching John try to be comfortable in a club. It was his first club experience and he was amused by the words of lil johns raps, but he did have fun and shook it like a salt shaker on a few occassions. haha. Ok now for today. Today we walked from our hotel on Copacabana beach to Ipanema beach and lounged ...

... that we had quite a feast of a lunch after we got our monetary compensation hahaha. We went to the beach and of course soaked in lots of sights and sounds. This evening we just got back from watching a movie at the local theatre... and no not some artsy brazilian flick you all would probably think i~d watch but it was The Da Vinci Code.. or O Coda DaVinci en Portuguese. It was in english and ...

... time to see more, even to sleep before getting up at 4am to catch our next flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. With no idea what to expect here and after 2 days of travelling half way accross the world sleep was the only thing on our minds. So it was straight to our youth hostel...which being named The End of the World we were pleased to find we had a nice room and most importantly a nice-ish bed!!!! With the sleeping out of the way it was time to explore. The jet lag still ...