Rio (she dances on the sand)

So... my epic travels started on Monday with the 11 hour flught to Brazil. I honestly dont think I´ve ever been so scared as I was standing in Heathrow waiting for my gate to be put up, I spent the two hours it took wondering through the shops (unfortunately they were all WH Smith so it was really just like looking round one shop for a very long time).

The flight, however, was fine- I found my nerves started to dissipate as the plane took off. I was sat next two two girls from Birmingham uni enabling us all to start each film in synch and then discuss them thoroughly afterwards. Shutter Island was highest in our estimation by a mile... recommended!

So... I arrived in Rio to be met by a driver whose only English consisted of ´I dont speak English´ (better than my Portuguese seeing as I can still only say ´thank you´and ´strawberries´) who then proceeded to drive me around about half of the city to get to El Misti Hostel where I was staying. The only way I can describe the Hostel is to ask you to pictire the messiest house party you´ve ever been to, add some bunk beds and double the noise. I found out after that El Misti is what is classified as a ´party hostel´- apparently they aren´t all like that. However, ut suoted m down to the ground as although has been awake all though my flight I found I had bundles of energy. After dumping my kit I wondered back into the main area to find a young man reading Á Tale of Two Cities´- obviously he was destined to be my friend (like it or not!!). His name turned out to be Dean and he was on the final leg of a nine month tour around South America, we also got chatting to a group of lads who had just graduated uni and the five of us made plans to go and see Rio the next day. We wound up chatting and drinking an incredibly potent Brazilian drink called Caprina till about 2am.

The next day Dove, Adam, Mani and Myself negotiated the terrifying Brazilian bus system to get to the the statue of Christ the Redeemer (Dean bowed out having already seen it). The statue is well deserving of its ´modern wonder´status... a truly humbling sight to behold with some of the most breathtaking views over Rio´s incredible expanse of natural beauty. Plus also ample opportunities for taking comedy phots (a must for any current world wonder surely?!). When I evertually get some photos up they really will speak for themselves (the one above was take from the top).

After Christ we did a whistle stop tour of Copacabana before meeting up with Dean to hike Sugar Loaf to watch the sun set, an absolutely phenomenal sight to behold (even in Paraguay the sunset is fairly specual - I think its a South America thing). Naturally I made my new friends think I was totally insane by trying to get a photo of a monkey that looked like a ring tailed lemur for Kathryn (there was one there-I wasn´t randomly hunting for one).

The next day I bid the boy adieu before heading back to the beach to soak up a few final hours of Rio´s natural beauty and gorgeous sunshine before heading to the airport to catch my flight to 11 degrees Montevideo....