B.O.D.

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So, here follows the long awaited first installment of the dreaded, I mean, highly entertaing yet informative, blog of delight - we can refer to it as the B.O.D. from now on (see title).

We began our journey some hazy 3 weeks ago in sunny Miami. Well we say sunny, but unfortunately it was the most consistently windy place we´ve ever been and I don´t mean because of too much Lamb Boona. We had a lovely week there and managed to get a fair amount of sun in and a decent chunk of beach time. It was of course made all the better by meeting up with George and Morgan. Miami was exactly how we both expected it to be, nice beaches, good food and lots of ripped men and fake-boobed women.

The highlights of our time there were going to a Miami Heat basketball game to watch Le Bron James in action (who Lucy took a particular fancy to - Charles is now practicing his hoop shots); Visiting the Everglades to ride on an air-boat and see lots of alligators; George catching a slightly drunk Charles pecking a gay make-up artist on the cheek who we met on a night out. No-one knows the full chain of events leading up to this strange occurence, least of all Charles who is pleading ignorance (Lucy is now practicing her camp man impressions); and of course all the time we spent catching up with George and Morgan who were both on great form - we were very sad to see them go (probably not as sad as they were to go back to work though!).

Next stop was Rio De Janeiro. As we anticipated Rio is a lot of fun, very lively and great vibe. However... Rio (and the rest of Brazil so far) is RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE!! Its actually more expensive than London for almost anything, which doesn´t seem to make much sense to us given the infrastructure. A few examples of outrageous prices we´ve paid so far in Brazil (translated into pounds) are: 8 for a Mcdonalds meal (not that we went in!), 1.50 for an average sized pack of crisps, 1.50 for a bottle of water, 15 for tiny bottle sun-cream and le piece de resistance... 20 english pounds for one large load of laundry!!! Unbelievable. Anyway, we digress - other than the price, Rio was great. We did all the classics such as visiting that big ol' statue of the one and only Jesus Christ and taking a cable-car up Sugarloaf mountain (Daddy Cox you would have been pale-faced and brown-trousered for that one). Both of these were awesome and really brought to life how amazing and mad it is we´re out here. Other than that we spent plenty of time on the beach (weather was generally excellent) and soaked up the culture with a fair few capirinhas and a street party in an area called Lapa - a quality night out! One final thing to mention on Rio is a quick description of our second hostel in an area called Ipanema. Ipanema is fantastic location, but our experinence of it was slightly marred by possibly the filthiest píg-sty of a hostel on God's green earth! We'd booked and paid for 3 nights there so were lumbered with it but my oh my was it a hole! A couple of lowlights - cockroaches in the bedroom, a bathroom that smelt worse than a Notting Hill portaloo during Carnival, a kitchen boasting no more than a shabby old microwave on its last legs and a breakfast consisting of ham dripping with sweat among other unpleasantries. Words don't do this place justice. Okay, rant over.

After 5 nights in Rio we headed to an island called Ilha Grande. This is maybe our favourite place so far - absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a lovely hostel with WHITE PILLOWS and clean sheets (we´ll overlook the fact our toilet didn´t flush). it felt like the Ritz. This is an island with gorgeous beaches and amazing scenery. Mum and Dad Ryder would have been astounded by the amount of (unwhinging) walking we did here. We were averaging jungle treks lasting about 5 hours a day to get to secluded beaches with monkeys swinging in the trees around us. We met some really nice people here and made some really lovely memories. One of our walks was not so successful. Based on the recommendation from our dubious German-Irish roomates we donned our boots and filled up on water for our intrepid trek for the "best beach they´d ever seen". Two and a half hours of walking up hill later in 30 degree heat, we arrived at said beach to find clouds piling up and wind lashing. We ate our sandwiches and turned straight back. Enough said.

We now find ourselves in a coastal town called Paraty. Again surrounded by gorgeous beaches...More updates to follow about this in due course.

Anyway if you haven't fallen asleep by now, apologies it's taken us so long to get round to giving you a proper update. Hope this finds you all well and if you can spare a moment or two it would be nice to hear back from you via the comments option below.

Much love from Brazil,

Charles and Lucy xxx

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