Brazil

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So we have hit Brazil and have travelled from the Iguazu Falls (again they looked just as awesome from the other side, if not more impressive) through to Curitiba and then up to Rio de Janeiro via a small island called Ihla do Mel.

Brazilians do live up to the reputation of being amazingly helpful, happy and beautiful people (well at least the majority of the ones we have met).

We have also now been joined by Kiran in Rio. Hooray! Sarita was soooooo excited about having her little sister join us, give her some respite from my attention deficit disorder antics. Unfortunately for Kiran the bed bugs in her hostal bed were happy to see her too... she has since changed hostals.

As I said we started in the falls and had a beautiful 2 days to hang around and chill by the falls or by the hotel pool. But on the end of the second day the heavens opened and for a minute we thought we were going to get flooded out of the hotel.

We then decided to head down to Ihla do Mel but unfortunately the weather followed us. We started by taking the most beautiful train ride in Brazil only to see cloud and rain for most of the way.... it did not stop the guide giving everyone a running commentry on what we should be seeing though! Then we travelled to the little car free (no not carefree, I meant to type car free) paradise island to be greeted by more rain. Seeming the island is famous for beach and not much else we decided to get back on the road and head for Rio.

All this travel was basically done by night buses. I dont care who you are and how much money you pay, you just cant sleep properly on those things... although we did get nice little goody bags of snacks, a little pillow and a comfy blanket!

But now we are in Rio and thanks to some nice leg work by Christian and Kiran we are staying in a great hostal and the sun is shinning (the sun I think is down to natural forces rather than Kiran and Christian).

Yesterday we went to Suagr Loaf Mountain (more cable cars!). We went to a football match (soccer that is) last night and it was great. Lots of singing, drumming and very passionate Brazilian footy fans... the team we were supporting won, of course! Today we sat on Ipanema beach and soaked up some sun and surf. Tomorrow we hope to pop up the hill and see Jesus!

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Photos

Brazilian Falls
This only shows about half of the falls as they are soooooo huge! We are still very impressed.

Cloudy views
Here Sarita checks out the very cloudy view

First views
When the clouds did part we did get some amazing views of jungle of sheer drops and lovely waterfalls and rivers.

Rainy Islands
Finally when we reached our paradise tropical island we thought our boat had taken us to Cornwall, not Brazil. Very pretty, stormy, very moody but not what we were are for!

Christmas Is Coming
Sarita is very excited to see christmas decorations but is till getting her head around the hole hot weather idea. She was very impressed though with this effort... it even had a little train that drove the kiddies to Santa!

A bumpy arrival for Kiran
Greeted by Kiran who was unaware of being eaten alive by bed bugs and to add to her problems Air France had lost her bags. But in true Kiran stylee she was still smiling and happy to get 100 Euro spending money!

Sugar Loaf Views
Looking over Copacabana Beach from Sugar Loaf Mountain..... the sun is out at last!

Blending with the locals
The girls said we should blend in but no matter what they did (here joining the muscle builders with their impressive chin ups...could not even manage 1) they could not get me to wander around in a pair of white speedos like a lot of blokes do... not on the beach either just around the town. It is not pretty!

Footy Crazy
SArita got into the footy so much that her hands were a blurred frenzy of activity... so were her hips as those latina rhythms took hold you just can not help but shake ya booty!

Ipanema Beach
Us and a few other 100000 odd people chilling on the beach.

All done with mirrors
How do those local girls get the perfect tans... it takes a lot of time and effort and constant checking of bikini positioning. Here is an example of a girl cheking herself using a hand held mirror... the ritual was repeated about every 5 minutes

Comments

[Mel]

my island
glad you visited my isle...i did the weather thing deliberately...trying not to attract too many tourists! Thanks guys i am really enjoying all your tales oh and did i mention jealous! Mel xx

[Faye Muldoon]

happy birthday
happy birthday Adam. what a way to spend it too!n Looking forward to hearing more at christmas.

[Harn]

poor smells!
I can't believe kiran's face ..that looks so painful!! poor poor thing and to have her bags go missing too! nightmare! by the way adam, firstly Happy birthday!! and secondly I thought that picture of the 2 birds on the beach was of sarita and kiran at first glance!! ha! x

[manjinder]

Happy birthday Adam
Sorry Adam A day late Happy birthday for yesterday. I hope you had a really jolly day. Good to read all the blog. Sad to see kiran Face yes must be really painful. Good for kiran still smiling all the time. love you all loads x