Unforgettable Arrival

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After a long journey from Manchester, via London, via Sao Paulo we are completing our approach into Rio when the pilot in his very calm, perfect english pilot-voice announces that there may be a fire in the hold and we need to make an emergency landing. As he is so perfectly calm, with his perfect english pilot-voice we just don't quite understand what is going on. It is only when the cabin crew (now elevated from trolly-dolly status) are donning hi-vis vests and checking us individually to make sure that we know what the brace position is, that it starts to sink in. I try to dipell that secretly exciting thought that we get to jump down the inflatable slide (I must grow up!) and then think about the fact that the plane may be on fire!!

So with a "brace, brace" we land - and a very smooth landing at that - and come to a halt on a runway miles from the airport and are surrounded by fire engines and the odd ambulance. The pilot announces that the fire brigade cannot find a fire so we don't have to go down the slide after all (OK, I may be alive but the slide would have made an even better photo!!).

I've go to say that I did see a man boarding the plane with a guitar in London. If he was a nun and there was a sick kid, I know we'd have been done for!

After that eventful arrival, everthing else has gone smoothly. I am now in the Rio Backpackers Hostel in Cocacabana which is a very friendly and easy going place. I spent some of the afternoon on the beach, until the sand blew into my sunscreen and I couldn't bear it any longer and then came back for a snooze.

It's now chucking it down and I hope I've not brought the British weather with me. Tomorrow I'm planning to do the major sites before joining the tour on Friday.

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