We have been in Rio for the last 9 days now and are thankfully back to our pre-New Zealand tanned selves. YAY!!

We decided to stay in Ipenema Beach house as Ipenema is supposed to be a nicer (and safer) part of Rio and it certainly is very nice here. Our hostel is lovely and has a pool and a funky outdoor bar area although the room isn't great. We have triple bunk beds in there too which i have never seen before but luckily i was quick enough to shotgun the only normal non-bunk bed. The beach is a five minute walk down the road and designer shops like Louis Vuitton are on every corner with scary (and slightly pervy- they hiss at us.. eugh!) security guards outside.

Our first day here we headed straight to the beach as it was VERY HOT (not to rub it in or anything) to begin our strenuous week of heavy sunbathing. Every so often we had a dip in the sea (now that really was hard work as they were the biggest waves i've ever encountered and they abused us big time!!) or turned over on our sunbeds to even out our tans. As i said it has been very strenuous work, i wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's impossible to get bored on this beach though as there is so much going on. Of course there are the Brazilian Gods with their tonned and bronzed bods that frequent their beach posing in their very tight and very small speedo's (not that we perve of course). Not to mention the hoards of beach sellers who are constantly coming up to us trying to sell us jewelary, drinks, sarongs, CHEESE?!, pinapples (i love our pinapple man- he sneeks up behind people and then shouts in their ears- he's got me nearly every day now but i am determined to get him back at least once!!!). Because we are Gringo's (white) we tend to attract a lot of attention and don't get left alone- it doesn't help that we keep buying things and encouraging them either...oops. We also have our boys that supply us with our sunbeds and serve us drinks all day (God, i'm not sure how we're coping..). Of course we try to ignore all the Brazilian girls with their perfect cellulite free bodies in their thongs...cows.

So after our first day of hardcore sunbathing we had some dinner and then headed back to our hostel for a caprinha (or caprioska depending on your preference) and met the Aussies Tim, Trent and Jake. These boys are crazy but we loved them anyway!

The following day was very similar. breakfast, beach, turn over at 1pm, dinner, hostel...we did first spot Mr Beautiful this day though. He is someone who sunbaths near us (or may be we sunbath near him) nearly everyday who we shamelessly perve over although have not yet spoken to..he is a bit of a miserable git though and never smiles back at us when we smile at him..although i suppose he could be put off by the drewl hanging from all seven of our mouths.

That night we went to a local bar with the boys but sunbathing really does take it out of you despite what you may belive so we didn't stay long.

Thursday however was a more eventful day. On the beach an American guy called Will Demps started talking to us and bought us all caprinha's so we hanged out chatting to him and his two friends on the beach and playing with the Flavela children that sell sweets on the beach until the sun went down. Throughout this encounter we discovered that he actually played American football for the New York Giants. Of course we googled him as soon as we got in and it turns out he's pretty famous over in the States- shame we hadn't heard of him but still pretty cool. Unfortunately he had a flight home that night so we didn't see him again.

The next couple of days were spent doing the usual- eat, sunbath, turn over, eat again- until saturday when we were going out for Annes birthday (which was the following day). After getting ready (not an easy task in our room) we walked down to a hostel down the road called 'the girl from ipenema'to meet Chris, Darren, Mohammus and another guy who we had met in our hostel in Florianopolis and went out to a club called Boom boom boom bar.

Then it was Anne's birthday. We gave her her pressie in the morning (a brazilian bikini- not quite a thong but pretty colse) and had her birthday cake and headed to the beach...Again. After the beach we went to a market and then out for a posh meal.

The next couple of days we just beached it. We met up with the boys on one of the days and had a great day, chris taught me to juggle, we burried mohammas in the sand and tried to conquer the waves..we did't succeed) and in the evening went to an all you can eat. It was great every one had a liitle placemat which was red on one side and green on the other and they just kept bring you out more and more food until you turned it over to red...my kinda place!!!

Yesterday it rained really bad (yeah ok, no need to gloat) so we just browsed around the shops durning the day and then went out with a Brazilian guy Marcello who we had met on the beach previously (and who hads a HUGE crush on Steph). The club was called the Patio Lounge and was reminisent of a school disco. We were also the only Gringos in there but we still managed to have a good night.

Today the weather has picked up but we decided to sunbath at the hostel. Chris popped around to see us as did Marcello baring gifts. he bought us all chocolates- he really does know the way to a girls heart. Soon we are going to go to dinner and tommorrow we are going to move to a hostel in Copacaba as there is more nightlife there and we want to finish our amazing trip on a high!