Hedonistic Rio!

Well, we arrived safely yesterday after a 14 hour flight via Sao Paulo. At first glance, Copacabana area of Rio is all the the guide books promise; samba in bars, football on the beach, majestic skyscrapers shadowing the curve of the beach. The gritty reality may be some what different though as Rio is like a prison - every building including Youth Hostels and Hotels are behind bars. We're staying 3 blocks down at Chelagarto Youth Hostel and it was a bit of a baptism of fire to begin with. Our double room was double booked so we had to share a mixed dorm. Whilst bunk beds are cool for kids - we spent the night dreaming of a room to ourselves and a double divan from DFS! Other travellers are just so friendly though and everyone shares their travel experiences so freely.

We've spent today on Copacabana beach - 27 degrees and a gorgeous way to start our travels. The Cariocas (natives of Rio) are not so much extroverted as sextroverted! Bikini bottoms don't really cover, well their bottoms to be honest (Fuji boys: investigation is stil ongoing into what a Brazilian is!), and they certainly have no inhabitions - wish they'd bottle it. Last night we had a meal for $10 - family sized pizza and 4 beers - eat your heart out Pizza Express! Today we have sampled the street fayres of Rio de Janieroc - corn on the cobs in their leaves and cooked in front of you and massive frankfurters in breadcrumbs cooked on the side walks (strange concept but yummy). Trying to conserve our money though because we're breaking up our Brazil trip into bite size chunks - with a trip to Bolivia inbetween, fellow travellers say it is unmissable with it's salty plains and flamingo shows. Unresolved questions about Brazil to date: Why are all the dogs the size of hamsters? Why do they dress their hamsters in souwesters?
Brazilians are always happy - haven't seen a miserable one yet - very far removed from Britain! More later this week and in the meantime, hope you're keeping well, lots of love to you all xxxx