Da de da de da de da da da.. the girl from Ipanema de da...

Hola from lovely Rio! I'm beginning to feel like a carioca (a Rio local), have been busily exploring the city and walking MILES and MILES.

The glorious sunshine yesterday drew me to Ipanema, and I found myself singing the song all day! What a difference to Copacabana beach, which whilst nice does not attract the beautiful people (to say the least). Ipanema was hosting pert chests, rock-hard abs, lots of pert bottoms in thongs - and that was just the men. It's really lovely there, cute bars and lots of different restaurants. Came across Ipanema Beach House, which is where Matt recommended that I stay (it was already booked out when I was looking for my accomodation here last August!). It was so nice, made me a bit wistful as my hostel in Copacabana is not exactly luxurious considering teh inflated carnaval price-tag (the whole city is rammed, not a single bed spare by the sound of things - I heard some people are sleeping in hammocks in their hostels)... but thankfully on my return a whole load of friendly Aussies had checked in. Hurrah! Its now much more lively, there are people speaking English instead of Hebrew, and I even made some British friends. Happy days.

Today I went up in the hills to Santa Theresa, which is a gorgeous collection of cobbled streets, crumbling buildings and quaint little cafes. Whilst attempting to get the old cable car (failed attempt, twice, had to get the bus) Lynne and I got chatting to a lovely English couple, Peter and Jenny, who became our travelling buddies for the day. We found a cute cafe, had English tea and dragged them on a random tour of the city!

We headed on to Lapa, specifically in search of Selaron's tiled steps; a (frankly, quite mad) artist has spent the past 20 years collecting colourful tiles and decorating a lot of steps in a run-down area of Lapa (the bohemian district). There are tiles from all over the world adorning the man's life work... and who did we spot as we ascended? Selaron himself, decked out entirely in red and looking very pleased with his work. I found some tiles to represent England (a picture of a telephone box, and the Beatles), and Lynne saw a wee Scottish tile, so Patriotism done we trotted up to get some snaps in front of the giant Brazilian flag mural. Some silly snaps later, we were at the top, getting rained on. The weather in Rio has not been very accomodating today, my hair is a frizzy mess (I dyed my own hair the other day, times are hard, thankfully it came out ok but poor James at Spencer Hair is going to be distraught when I get back).

A few drinks in Lapa later, I came across the stunning Teatro Municipal, the gorgeously impressive National Library, and thankfully a metro station (I was getting very wet from all the rain).

Really enjoying Rio, and very excited about all the carnaval celebrations. Not sure if I'll get many photos, as have been warned not to take my camera because of pickpockets, but I can always pinch some pics off the internet and pass them off as my own!

x