Hi everyone,
You remember that last time we wrote, we were telling you how brilliant the weather had been in Salvador and how we'd spent every day basking in sunshine on the beach? So, can you guess what happened next....? That's right, it tipped it down for the next 4 days!
We suppose it is technically the Brazilian winter after all, so we can't complain too much and it there was the silver lining of being able to watch lots of Wimbledon, as well as the football.
We did manage to get to the beach during breaks from the rain on 2 ocassions, though the first time we were literally the only people there and our only company was our misplaced optimism that the clouds would clear. They didn't. Maybe we should have realised that no locals on beach = no chance of sun.
Well somebody had to make some footprints in the sand!. .
We also popped down to the beach on Friday and managed to get 45 minutes of sun before a torrential downpour arrived. We sat it out in a bar and then headed back to the hotel once we were sure the rain had cleared. Unfortunately though, we're unlikely to be invited to audition as weather forecasters any time soon, as the rain started again when we were halfway back and we ended up drenched. Oops.
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Just to prove how wet we got...
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On Saturday we caught the plane back to Rio to meet up with Louise and Vanessa. We arrived at the apartment at 11pm and fully expected them to samba-ing the night away on their first night in Brazil, but the jetlag and a 4am start had caught up with them and they were both in bed! Poor lambs.
The apartment is really nice and just a couple of roads behind Ipanema beach and only a very short distance from the place we stayed in when we were in Rio a couple of weeks ago, and we´ve settled in very nicely, Phil especially enjoying the raised eyebrows he is getting walking back with all of these blondes on his arm...
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Phil and the ladies
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Much to the girls´excitement, we have also found a brilliant flip flop shop right near the apartment. Lucky we don´t have to go too far or Louise and Vanessa might have been heading back to the UK with longer arms after carrying the 20 pairs that we´ve bought between us so far....we are working on the story we´ll tell Brazilian customs if questions are asked (like, we have a lot of feet...??)
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Our flip flop purchases - and Phil trying his best to become an honourary girl (yes, that is ´Glamour´ magazine he is reading, brought all the way from London by Louise!)
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We have also got Louise and Vanessa playing scrabble already - well they can´t say they hadn´t been warned...
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Thankfully the weather is much better than the last time we were here and we all hit the beach on Sunday to soak up some Rio rays. We walked to Copacabana for lunch (it's a hard life isn't it?) and then the girls decided to stay on the beach afterwards, while Phil went to a bar to watch the Euro 2008 final, where they joined him at half-time when the sun had gone down.
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Rio beaches... and us being foolish (this was Louise´s influence. Honestly.). .
The bar we went to was packed with German expats and also had a TV crew trying to film everyone and hoping for a big reaction when Germany scored. Which of course they didn't. We're not sure where the TV crew were from, but we're assuming their footage probably didn't make for the most gripping news item that evening....
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On Monday we all found Jesus. Or 'O Cristo Redentor' as he's known in these parts. Or the statue of Christ the Redeemer as he's known in the English-speaking world. The statue is 130 feet tall and weighs 700 tons and stands atop the peak of the Corcovado Mountain, overlooking the city (isn't Wikipedia great for stats?!) and we took the tram to the top, where you can walk around the statue and admire the views of Rio.
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. .Though admiring the view is easier said than done because the clouds tend to have a habit of getting in the way, as do all the other tourists getting their picture taken while copying the statues arms out-stretched pose. Luckily the cloud cleared just long enough and we managed to duck enough arms to be able to get some pics.
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Spooky-looking pylons in the clouds above Rio
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Waiting for ´that´ photo opportuity... . .
We had a meal in Ipanema that evening where Louise and Vanessa were once again amazed by Phil and Sarah's grasp of Portuguese. Though when we say "amazed" we mean in the sense that they were amazed the waiter understood what we said and that we got what we ordered rather than another 4 plates of mashed potato and another 4 of chips like we got in one particularly memorable meal in Buenos Aires when our Spanish let us down. It's tricky this language business.
After dinner, Louise was keen to get back to her Irish roots so we headed to Rio's best (and possibly only) Irish bar: Shenanigans. We're not sure if the residents of Galway or Kerry or Cork would have recognised it as such but it was good fun and we knocked back a few traditional Irish drinks like er, Heineken and er, vodka and coke while bemoaning the fact that we'd arrived about 10 minutes too late to join the quiz.
We had planned to make an early start Today but the 2am finish and alcohol consumption put paid to that so we dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the beach instead. We wandered down from Ipanema to Leblon for lunch and had the world's most expensive ice cream (2 pounds 90p for a Cornetto!!) for dessert while overlooking the beach.
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Lunch in Leblon, and trying not to look shocked at the Cornetto prices in Ipanema
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On Ipanema beach again. .
Tonight, we're off to a samba club. Though, like the football on the beach, we'll probably do more watching than joining in so the Brazilian don't laugh at us....or at least until we've had a few capairinhas to loosen up....
We're hoping to catch the cable car up to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain on Wednesday before Sarah and Phil head to Iguazu on Thursday. Louise and Vanessa have understandably decided to fly rather than join on us the budget option which involves a 22 hour bus ride, so they'll meet us there on Friday.
We've got 3 days in Iguazu before we all head to Buenos Aires for a week for tango, giant steaks and, hopefully, cheaper ice cream.
Hope all's well at home. We're assuming it's Murray-mania at the moment. Unless of course you're reading this after Wednesday and Nadal has knocked him out....
Love Sarah and Phil x x (and Louise and Vanessa!! x x)
