bem vindo, Brasil!

James and I have safely arrived in Rio de janiero, after an overnight flight and a rather long bus ride through the city! We are staying with James friend Carolina and her family in the richest part of Rio in a very nice apartment, we have our own room and a live in chef/housekeeper!! Rio is beautiful, we are staying right between the famous beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana where they actually have designated areas for the beautiful people, gays, less glamorous locals etc. everyone is soccer mad of course and there are barefoot games of soccer being conducted everywhere as well as beach volleyball with buff girls in brasilian bikins doing their daily training. you can buy whole coconuts and drink the juice witha straw, pineapples, mangoes, banannas;; ahhh the tropical life- megusta megusta!! (i like i like!)


I can tell i am going to love and adore my time here, the shopping is great the people are laid back and beautiful, despite the very real threat of crime! I am very quickly trying to learn portuguese as her family speaks no english and we are having some pretty funny ´conversations´!! it has some similarities to spanish so i can pick up threads of what is being said but i have no way of responding which is very frustrating, so there is lots of laughing and smiling and tyring furiously to find the right page oin the phrase book!!

So is just a quick note to say i am very excited to be here, it is awesome having carolina and her sister Maria Sylvia to take us out, tonight we are going to a party at a bar that has a great view over the beaches for a friends birthday and then out to a small brazilian club and tomorrow night a live outdoor concert on top of sugar loaf mountain, we are coming back to have a proper brasilian christmas with her family after flying up north and may even be here for the new year. it all sounds amazing! Yes, bad things do happen here and it can be dangerous but we are going to be very careful and only take what we need out and about.

I bought my first pair of havayna thongs complete with brasilian flag so am very excited. we drank capriyanas (spelling??) in an outdoor bar last night whilst snacking on a delivious spread of local food in a setting that would have bankrupted us in europe but which is finally totally affordable here!

hope everyone is well, more photos soon!