Carnival and the fun continues. Monday was a day on ipanema beach because apart fromt he sunset, emma hasn't really visited it. The day seemed to be dominated with cash flow problems as the cash machines seem to have run out of money completely. appparently its quite common during carnival but not helpful if you have 20 reais (£5) between us.

having eventually solved the money issue, we headed to the beach to learn that all the umbrellas had been rented out so emma opted to save herself from burn and headed to a restaurant while i went to the beach to fry. while wandering around, i bumped into two girls i'd been chatting to at the airport who are also heading to ihla grande and staying int he same hotel as us os we will defintiely see them again.

At 4ish the Afro reggae bloco started along the beach front. Apart from Santa teresa which has to have been the best for pure comic value, this bloco was the most fun we have experienced. the music was so loud and really catchy and everyone danced down the streets and on the beach. it made what had been a frustrating morning totally worth it.

Sambadrome was the evenings entertainment. the sambadrome is what carnival is officially about. its a competition between the best samba schools in rio and so it's there opportunity to put on an amazing display of costumes, music and dance. it started at 9 at night and finished at 6 in the morning though emma and i didnt quite have the stamina to make it through to the end. the costumes wee beautiful and it put the parades at notting hill carnival to shame.

today we headed to see christ redeemer. we preferred it to sugarloaf as the views of all of rio were better. rio is such a weird city as all the beautifu landscape is interspersed with such ugly buildings.

about to go for a drink with fabio and friends on the beachfront and then hopefully off out to meet eleanor drage and sabrina hummel

lots of love

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