i've had another great couple of days. yesterday i went to ipanema beach which is supposed to be a lot more sociable though i'm finding that because there are so many tourists here for carnival, everywhere you go you meet people. my friend Louis from work had also arrived the previous night so i met up with him on ipanema which was really nice. we stationed ourselves by post 9 which is supposed to be "the beauty spot" according to mylonely planet in the hope of meeting some stereotypical bronzed brazilians. sadly i think post 9's reputation has tainted it as there didnt seem to be any higher proportion of pretty people there than anywhere else! still it did mean we meet a lot of other backpackers who'd also had a similar idea! one guy in particular was a tour guide in rio and so told louis and i all the best blocos to go to for carnival. blocos are like big street parades that start from tonight onwards and everyone just parties in the streets from as early as 9 in the morning.

this morning i woke up with horribly sore feet. even though i had rented an umbrella yesterday, i am too long (i prefer "long" to "big") for the shady patch so, for the sake of vanity, i had sacrificed my feet rather than my nose to the sun. i decided to spend the hottest part of the day in one of the juice bars just a few blocks in from the beach where i read my book (uncle David- i've started the old patagonian express which you gave me) and chatted in really dodgy portuguese to the guy behind the counter. this afternoon was spent on copacabana beach where i saw fabio and fred again. a brazilian tried to chat me up in the sea but given that all he could say was "beautiful" in english, after we had established that the sun was beautiful, the sea was beautiful and he thought i was beautiful, conversation sort of dried up.

beach party on the sectionof the beach in front of us tonight apparently but it was supposed to start at 4 and i havent seen any sign of it yet. if it is on im going to go for a bit while i wait for emma to arrive as shes due in quite late this evening. i can't wait to see her!

thats about it i think. Theo was right though when she commented on my last post, you need to put a +55 in front of my brazilian number. +21 is the part that says its a rio number not a brazilian one.

lots of love to you all

xxxxxxxx