Rio de Janeiro

Sarah and I
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INTERESTING FACTS

1. At 8.5million sq kilometres Brazil is only slightly smaller than the continental USA and is the world's fifth largest country behind Russia, Canada, China and the USA.

2. Brazil has the world's eighth largest economy

3. The Amazon accounts for 42% of Brazil

Dad's Army
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The first day in Rio I spent the afternoon on Copacabana beach which was close to the apartment that I am staying in. Considering I thought the beach was going to be full of beautiful bodies I was pleasantly surprised there are some really chubby weebles on there and I look trim in comparison. I also visited a supermarket but the people in it were crazy fighting over vegetables when there were tons of them and really no need to fight. Weirdos! The other weird thing is that men here shop in speedos with bum bags, nice!

In the party mood
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The next day I went to Christ the Redeemer on the hill. I took a taxi and then the elevator and wait for it, the escalators up! Escalators on a hill??!! The statue is massive and really impressive. It was also baking hot today 38 degrees and I was cooking. Though having said that the tan is coming along nicely. This afternoon I had an all you can eat buffet for 8 pounds which was delicious and heading to Copacabana for an hour for more roasting. I then got the bus to the bottom of Sugar loaf mountain and caught the two cable cars up. I took photos of Rio during the evening, waited for the sunset, more photos and then some more when the lights came on over the city. It was a fabulous view and Rio is a truly beautiful city. I then caught the bus back but it took the long way so I had a free tour of Ipanema and Leblon.

Sarah and James
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The third day I spent on ipanema beach which is nicer than copacabana at the moment as Copacabana has work going on. The sea is also much nicer there. It is much more the beautiful people beach. I also went shopping to Rio Sul a huge shopping centre but it was pretty pricey for south america.