Did someone say a small gathering

Greetings once again from Rio De Janeiro!. As 2011 and our time here draws to a close i thought maybe i'd share a few observations from our time here....

Lesson 1....eating out hurts! Surprising but true none the less! After spending quite an eventful day out strolling through town we decided to stop off for a quick bite (early dinner)....having studied the menu i mustered up my best portugese and summoned the waiter.....stringing together a few phrases which would have brought a smile to my language teacher i selected a few dishes and settled back to enjoy a cold beer! When the waiter later brought across an extra table to us we naturally enough assumed that they were creating some additional seating in the restaurant for other 'non existant' guests....ohhhh no.....to my horror out came the pizza.....no it wasn't a pizza it was quite literally a door! With the waiter struggling to hump this load across the restaurant i prayed that it was for someone else.....funnily enough my prayers weren't answered! Leigh of course took great delight in my sheer embarassment...that was until her salad was delivered...did i say salad..i meant 'jungle'! Talk about the loafs and fishes malarky, we could have fed thousands between us! All i can say is, its times like this when elasticated shorts come in handy!!! So the moral of the story is assume the worst and order small.....and perhaps get your Portugese pronouncation checked out to be sure before you either insult the locals or eat a house!

Lesson 2....forget the suncream and bring ear defenders! Rio at New Years can certainly test the senses...it's colouful for starters and after a tropical rain shower there are some amazing aromas from the local flora and fauna but i think someone forgot to mention the sounds! Apart from those amazing drums that produce that authentic carnival sound there's enough gunpowder flying around here at the moment to start a war! Having watched the London fireworks on the TV a little earlier last night i was pretty empressed by Boris and the boys annual affair by the Thames, but here they take it to the next level for sure. If you closed your eyes you could quite easily imagine yourself being in the middle of the beach storming at Normandy in 1944, with the booms and bangs coming from every direction...the only difference is that here they have Samba music blaring out from the hillsides around us .....Hey it's Rio!

Lesson 3....travel light and be sensible. For those of you who were subjected to Trinny & Susanna's "What not to wear" tv program by your other halfs you have my sympathies, but maybe there are a few lessons to be learned by some of those we have seen wandering about. For starters walking through Rio wearing sandals with socks is not a good look and then throw on a few camera bags and add a bit of jewellery and hey presto suddenly you're the talk of the locals in town! Tourists here do stand out and sometimes you need to take a few precautions....Heck even Ross Kemp looked worried when he visited the local Favelas (Slums) as part of his 'Worlds dangerous gangs' series...which funnily enough is 300m up the road from where were staying....... not mentioned in the guide book!!!

Until next time!