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Hey everyone!
Well first chance I've had to have a bit of proper internet time so thought I'd try and do a quick update on what I've been up to so far.
So we arrived in Rio on Monday night absolutely exhasted after leaving home at 5.40 am and arriving at our hostel at about 11.30 pm local time (Rio is 4 hours behind England). It was exciting but very surreal to be reunited with Jess and Lee!
We are staying in Ipanema which is next to Copacabana beach and are going to go over there tomorrow. Rio is very spread out with different areas and pretty confusing (I'll probably have got the hang of it just as we are about to leave!). Language is difficult too because even when you know a word, often the brazilians can't understand our pronunciation- but with broken English/Portugese/lots of miming we're getting by!
We've done quite a bit of exploring, there is so much to do here. Yesterday we went up to the Christ the Redeemer statue - we had quite a clear afternoon and the view was breathtaking. It's a stunning statue too and visible from almost everywhere (so look out for it in the pics!).
We visited the botanical gardens today and also the Tijuca national park, which is a piece of rainforest literally 15 mins away. We spent an hour and a half walking through the rainforest only to spot a racoon right back near the car park where we started!
We also saw a local football team, the Flamengos, play at Maracana, Rio's huge football stadium (its capacity is 100,000 but it has held 200,000 at big games). I admit I was unsure as not a huge footie enthusiast but it was honestly one of my favourite things so far! It's hard to describe the atmosphere but it was just incredible, the fans are so passionate and there were huge flags being waved and official drummers accompanying all the songs (Portugese football chants sound much cooler than English ones, a little harder to join in though but we had a go!!). The journey there on the metro was hilarious, I have never known anything so packed, talk about getting up close and personal with the locals!
Well that is probably enough to take in for now, we have a couple more days here before we head off to find some beaches so I will say tchau for now!xx
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