welcome to rio

well after the journey from hell, finally arrived in Rio last night 8 hours after we were meant to! All started well with a lovely BA plane but then the problems started when we tried to touch down in sao paulo. Unfotunately there was fog with 300m visibility so we couldnt land and after initially thinking we were going to divert to rio (hurrah) we ended up in a small airport about 10mins away from sao paulo. Had a delay while we waited for some ground staff, and then when we were finally cleared to leave from this little place, the plane behind us couln~t start an engine so we were stuck! Anyway, eventually made it to sao paulo (with the advantage that now it was light we had a great view over the city - its huge!) and just as we thought we were going to leave, the captain comes on to say that a catering van has hit the plane and whilst he and the brazilian enginer say its fine, it has to be agreed by an engineer in england. Now, he thought it would only take 20mins, but 5 hours later we were still waiting with little trips into sao paulo airport for some snacks! turns out there only appears to be one engineer who can say yes and he was at home (presumably with a killer hangover which was preventing him looking at some digital photos!!)

So then we were all herded off the plane and transfered to a local brazilian plane which was flying from an airport miles and miles away! but brazilian airports are an experience in themselves and am quite glad i have experienced one before i fly to quito so i know what to expect! But despite the huge delays, it was quite an experience and when we finally landed in rio, everyone (from our flight at least) cheered! Plus we got an amazing flight over rio seeing christ and sugar loaf and everything

So am now in rio, settled in a nice little hostal in ipanaema. Not really sure how long i am going to stay here, but it could be quite a while, its got a lovely feeling with all these little bars and resturants on street corners and feels a bit like greenwich in new york or paris or somewhere like that. Went out to a couple of really cute bars last night (with my first proper brazilian made caiprinha.....my brain cells may never recover!) and then tried to get into this club which turned out to be one of the more popular ones in rio and after queing for half an hour, we gave up! Felt like being a pleb trying to get into chinawhites or somewhere!

Anyway, really tired today so going to take it easy....apparently there is a market on somewhere and then i am off to the beach for some serious r & r!