Greetings from Brazil!! I have arrived and bought the Havaianas to prove it -bargain hunters among us they were five pounds here as opposed to 18 in Office!!

After a long flight where I attempted to watch `Becoming Jane´ and gave in to watching `Spideman 3? (I loved it Ben), we finally arrived in Rio. The check in scheming came off as me and Alex were the only two people on the flight to have two seats each and this increased to four after the stop over in Sao Paulo. We eagerly moved to window seats for the landing over Rio (well, its cheaper than the helicopter flight) but were unfortunately greeted with cloud all the way to the ground!

We got a bargainous taxi from the airport as we shared with another couple who came all the way from ......Ascot!! The guy had spent his gap year working in Waitrose - maybe he is my stalker!! We have swapped numbers so that we can share further taxi´s and have some male accompaniment to the clubs though.

The hostel is beautiful - slap bang between Cartier and Louis Vuitton. It´s got a gorgeous little pool surrounded by candals and hammocks and there are seating areas with throws and cushions everywhere. Having caught a sight of a ramshackle dorm however we are very pleased with our private room. Sam - there is a third bed in the corner as a shrine to you/temporary wardrobe. There was (most surprisingly) hot water in the showers this evening, but unfortunately the light didn?t work. We took turns to wear head torches and hold my hand torch while the other one showered and tried not to wet ourselves giggling at the strangeness of it all.

The beach is amazing - all white sand for miles set against a mountainous backdrop. The sun has not arrived yet though (it is drizzling as I write) but I expect the beach can only get better when it does.

Tomorrow we are off to see Christ and the next day we plan to climb Sugarloaf as a dry run for the Inca Trail (unless the sun arrives in which case it will be far too hot and the tanning challenge will need to begin!)

I?ll keep you posted as there is internet in the hostel.

Lots of love

Jayne

PS The Brazilian?s are huge dog lovers and I am irritating the hell out of Alex pointing each one out to her- what has happened to me??!!

PPS The grammar equates differently on foreign keyboards - my typing is not as horrendous as it looks.  Perhaps if I use a question mark where I need a comma next time that will work?