Hey there lovers and friends! Its Tiff here!

To carry on from yesterday, as planned we had a few drinks in the hostel bar and then went with everyone into Lapa, we were meant to be going to a Brazillian Carnival night but when we arrived the queue was far too big and to be honest it looked very scary and some cheesy funk music playing inside. We had lost a few people from the hostel so it ended up being me, Beth and Alex (A Portuguese businessman?) Jamie (From London) and Matt (German guy, living in Bahamas who got binned off by some other girl at the hostel), so a very mis matched group. Anyway we felt safer being with older men so that was a plus, we walked along and found a restaurant/bar with a live Samba band, had a few drinks whilst taking in the atmosphere, it was great actually, even though we didnt know the words we were doing the sit down attempt at a Samba as we didnt want to embarass ourselves or stick out as the English girls lol. After this we found another bar which was packed out, again a live Samba band playing and a lot more dancing, most Brazilian women are actually beautiful and not stick thin which is what me and Beth like to see!

Anyway after a very strong Caipriniha? It was time to leave, Brazil bars have a very strange way of paying for things too, we had like a scoring card with what we had ordered on it and then queued for 20 mins to pay at the end, very backward if u ask me! Once back at the hostel we saw the little man who runs the place at night (hes so cute), he opened the kitchen for us so we could make our pot noodles (very classy).

At this point we needed our beds as it was 5am, we decided we wouldnt wake up to an alarm or anything, but were quite shocked when we woke up today at half 1!!

Once we were dressed and ready we got the metro to Impanema and wandered round to find a bank, which isnt an easy task as not a lot of them accept our cards!! We found a HSBC anyway so were sorted. Grabbed some food to cure my hangover and wandered around the famous Hippy Market! It was a really good atmosphere around there, we bought some beach dresses and bracelets to remind us of Rio!

After the market we took a walk down to the beach, sat at the opposite end of Copacabana to where we are staying and enjoyed coconut milk out of the shell, quite refreshing!! Watched the sun set over Sugar loaf mountain and realised that Rio is actually better than we thought initially, was nice to see the locals and hear the Brazillian music.

It soon got dark so we decided to walk to see Impanema and search for Havaianas, we found some in a little shop where the boy tried to touch my feet!! I was very embarrased by this but he took it well! So we are now proud owners of new Havaiana flip flops :) Impanema beach looked very pretty all lit up at night, attempted to take some photos but the camera seems to be being dodgy so sorry about that! We stayed there a little and enjoyed some Churros, before heading back to the hostel.

We are being cooked for this evening by Ceaser a local man we met at the hostel, he doesnt speak any English but is very hospitable, so it should be nice to experience some true Brazillian food (unless he is cooking Lizard which I hear is a speciality)

Well that is all for now, I do waffle on! We are leaving this busy city tomorrow and are heading for the idyllic Ihla Grande, I cant wait!!!!! Apparently it is the image of paradise! wooo hooo!

Miss u and love u all

Hope everyone is good

lots of love

T&B