Weve arrived!

Hi
The internet at the hotel is really expensive so ill have to be quick. I also cant find the apostrophe on this foreign keyboard so my grammar will be a bit off (as usual)

The journey to get here was pretty boring so I thought I would liven things up by leaving our passports and all my travellers cheques on the plane when we transferred flights at Lisbon. There was a brief 20 minutes of panic when we thought that maybe someone had stolen them and we even talked about having to go back to Liverpool to get a new passport when an airport worker sprinted across the airport to deliver us the wallet with both our passports intact and all the money still there. Luckily (or because of us) the connecting flight was delayed by an hour and we managed to get on the flight and sleep for the most part.

The hotel we got to was really nice. We booked this one seperately to the organised trip and the quality was really good. They recommended a restaurant which is a buffet, except when you get to the end you put your food on scales and you pay by weight. Dee loved this idea because most of the food she eats is really light anyway. She had her fill of salad leaves and bread.

In the morning we woke up to this sight from our window

Which was amazing.

We checked out and headed for the excursion company hotel which had this view from our window

Which was less amazing.

On the first night of the organised events was a trip to a cheesy, expensive disco, which we didnt fancy. We went into town instead. We were told not to take much money, valuables (no camera) or any jewelery because it can get a bit "crazy" at night, which sounded like a good night to us. When we got there the atmosphere was electric with samba schools drumming madly and people drinking caipirinhas and partying in the street. The only thing i can compare it to is Notting Hill Carnival but without the organisation (or toilets). None of the roads were closed, despite hundreds of people dancing around the cars and buses and police presence was minimal. We didnt feel threatened at all and i wish i took my camera now.

Today we went to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf mountain, so here are the obligtory tourist shots.

Im not sure what we are doing tonight but tomorrow night we are going to the sambadrome to see the carnival proccession.