Oh Lá,

This is the first of what will, hopefully, be several blogs detailing our Round the World adventure.
As I write this it is absolutely bucketing down (the first time it has done so since we arrived) but luckily we managed to get in a couple of hours surfing off Macumba Beach this morning. Both of us have picked it up quite quickly despite the fact that Rob’s balancing ability isn’t far from that of a seesaw!
The weather has provided a bit of a shock as although we both knew that Rio would be hot, it is summer here after all, I don’t think either of us were prepared for the sun strength and temperatures that have greeted us. Rob burnt his feet pretty bad (they originally went purple! But are fine now) and I have two farmer’s arms that Kevin Shreeve would kill for.
Our tent seems to think that it is actually a sauna and both of us cant sleep in it at the same time, as such we take it in turns to sleep outside in a hammock every alternate night. Needless to say it won’t be traveling any further with us on this trip!
On Saturday we visited Christ the Redeemer with some Swiss girls we met in the hostel and it was as spectacular as I imagined it would be. The only bad point being that it was busier than Harrods in the January sales up there, and with temperatures reaching nearly boiling point we did a Japanese and took some photos before making a speedy exit.
In the evening our hostel organized a bbq in honour of my birthday (which was very nice of them!) and copious amounts of Brahma’s and caipirinha´s were dually sunk to the rhythms of a local samba band they had hired for the night.
Sunday (my actual birthday) arrived in a bit of a haze, as should be expected, and most of the day was spent just chilling on the beach. By the afternoon I was feeling a little less hung-over and a group of us went to the Maracana (one of the largest football stadiums in the world) to watch Fluminese take on Vasco da Gama in a local grudge match. The atmosphere was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Let’s just say it put watching Leyton Orient to shame! With tens of thousands of screaming Brazilians waving flags, banging drums and lighting flares. Unfortunately the football didn’t quite match the setting as both teams ironically did rather play like Orient and managed to miss more chances than Michael Chopra in a tyne-wear derby.
The rest of the week has seen us mostly relaxing on the beaches (which are incredible by the way) and occasionally entering the water to ride a few waves. Next week is Carnival and as such our time in Macumba has been the calm before the storm we both needed after months of planning and work.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed researching for it ; ) Until the next installment,

Tchau,

Mark x