We've arrived ....

Hi! Hope you are well. Our Round-the-World adventure has begun! 

 We arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at 07:55 on Monday morning - on time to the minute! We were welcomed by that start-of-holiday heatwave that enters the plane as soon as the doors are opened and the temperature has been in the low - mid 30's ever since. It only seems to drop a couple of degrees at night too so it's pretty relentless and very humid. I seem to drink 1 litre and perspire 2 so I'm not sure there's going to be much left of me by the weekend! 

 So what have we done in our first couple of days here? Not alot, yet. The day we arrived was Lynn's birthday and she wanted to spend it on the beach so we trotted on down to Copacabana beach (about 2 minutes walk from our hostal). Copacabana is 5 miles of sweeping white sand backed by skyscrapers and behind these lie tall, rolling hills of rainforest. Watching over one end of Copacabana is the statue of Christ The Redeemer and at the other end are the vertical walls of Sugarloaf Mountain. It really is the most spectacular setting. The only disappointment is the sea which is about 50% water, 50% rubbish. Like bottle-green porridge! 

 Yesterday we went up to the top of Corcovado Mountain (710m) on top of which stands the 38m high statue of Christ The Redeemer. The views of Rio are breathtaking although it started to rain whilst we were up there and so we only stayed about 45 minutes. We went late, just before dusk, and rather than the beautiful sunset we envisaged the clouds descended from the hills and it just got dark in a very unspectacular way. Maybe we'll get another chance before we leave Rio to go up again. When we got back to the hostal the owners asked what we thought and couldn't believe it when I told them about the rain. 1 hour later the rain was coming down in torrents and it was still raining at midnight when I went to bed. We didn't want to venture out in the monsoon conditions for something to eat so we ordered a Domino's pizza and had it delivered to the hotel. Just like being at home! 

 Well, better go. It's hot and sunny again today which means it far too nice to stay indoors. 

Speak again soon, 

Rich

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