Will in Brazil

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Our eventfull ten days started with an SOS e-mail from Will saying he was stuck in Auckland for a night and when he finally arrived his bag and boards didn´t!
So we decided to go to Rio de Janeiro first.
We arrived in Copacabana, Rio at 2 o´clock in the morning and frantically tried to find a hotel because Tom was in more dying need of a number 2 than any man in toilet history.
Will and I where tired of hearing him winge.
No one wanted to accept us at that hour, but after 3 hotels we finally got a room, much to Tom´s relief - and ours!
The next morning we discovered for the first time how beautiful Rio is and how crazy the drivers are.
Will wanted to up grade on our hotel, so we went over to Ipanema Beach and found a nice hotel which although didn´t have bath robes, had a bidet, so he was happy.
We settled in, in adjoining rooms and while unpacking we heard a scream from Wills side, and rushed around to find a curious Will standing over his beloved bidet with a dripping wet face! We all fell about laughing!
We went up pay our respect to Jesus the same day and that night caught the cable car to Sugar Loaf.
Day two in Rio we went to check out if there was any surf at another beach and had to drive past the foot of the Rocinha (the biggest favela or slum in Brazil). As we were driving past the police was stopping some cars. To our relief we got through because they had the biggest guns we had ever seen.
After 2 days in Rio we had to head back to Sao Paulo to try and collect Will´s luggage.
It arrived ok so then it was off to Florianopolis.
We left Rio at 3pm and stopped driving when we arrive in Florianopolis at 8am.
We had a fun week in Floripa, did some surfing, sand boarding, ate some good food and just basically lived it up on this beautiful Island.
The photos will pretty much tell the story, plus we are sick of writing, so we´ll leave you at that.

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Photos

Copacabana Beach
"Her name was Lola, she was a show girl...at the Copa, Copacabana...."
This was the view from our hotel

Ipanema Beach
We forgot the words to "The girl from Ipanema", but this was the view from our hotel on Ipanema Beach

Cheeky monkey
We were driving up to "The Jesus" and this little guy was on the side of the road and kept raising his eyebrows at us.

Tom Axe & The Jesus
We tried to take a photo with Jesus´ hands in our ears but it didn´t really work

Corcovado (The Jesus)
Will was amazed that they had escalators going up to Jesus, but the Nuns seamed to appreciate it

View from the Sugar Loaf
View of Rio from a safe distance, on top of the Sugar Loaf

Biggest "Favela" in Brazil
Favela means slum in portuguese. The Rocinha is the biggest one in Brazil, with around 200 thousand people living in it.

Will & Tom at the dunes
Sand dunes at Joaquina Beach where for 5 dollars an hour you can sand board until your heart is content.
Although they don´t monitor the time your legs can´t withstand more than an hour.

Axe Sandboarding
The only time I was actually on the board and not on my ass!

Tom Sandboarding
Going down is easy, but with no lifts the walk back up is exhausting

Staircase
Will and I decided we needed a cabin with either a hammock or a spiral staircase. We got both! So we were pretty stoked!

Feijoada Day
Saturday being the traditional Feijoada Day we went on a hunt to find somewhere that served it. An hour and a half later and on the brink of giving up we stumbled across this place which had a buffet feijoada, samba band, samba dancers and of course lots of caipirinhas

Tom at the markets
This day the surf was crappy, so while Will tried to scavinge a couple of unrideable waves, we went to check out the markets.

Tom Cafe
On the way back from the markets we found a cafe that really made Tom feel welcome.

Poker Night
The last 2 days in Floripa it got really cold and rainy so we decided to stay in with a card game, home made caipirinhas and a couple of cubans.

Joaquina Beach
View down the beach of Joaquina, which is the most famous beach for surfing in Brazil.

Windy day at the dunes
Axe getting blasted by sand at the dunes.

Tom & Will
Master photographers at work.

The day we left
The weather cleared up and we were sad to say good bye and dreading the 12 hour drive we had ahead of us.

Fishing Boat
Lake right in front of our lodgings. Not a bad sight to wake up to.

Driving back home
Puting in a hard yards on the drive home. Will was "super comfortable" in the back. We didn´t hear the end of it!