The Brazilians are great at a lot of things, but making wine is not one of them!  Thought I'd have a treat and bought a bottle of red with our ham and cheese rolls for tea, but I should have stuck to the beer.

Monday we explored Ouro Preto town on foot, up and down numerous hills to find most churches and museums were shut on a Monday.  So after a supermarket run we went back to our Pousada to relax and have a home-comforts tea of chicken, veg and mash.  Tuesday we trekked uphill to buy our bus tickets to Rio for the following day and got accosted by a local guide next to the bus station.  So we spent the rest of the day on our on private tour around old gold mines, churches and ending in the gem museum (unfortunately we weren't allowed a camera due to the value of all the stones).  We learnt how the tall African slaves were castrated whilst some of the short blokes had the job of breeding, so there were more short workers for the mines (note to Duppa, Rik and Hild).  The Baroque churches were stunning with elaborate decorations all in gold leaf, due to the abundance of local gold during the 18th Century.

Wednesday the bus to Rio de Janierio took 7hrs, and we got a taxi to a hostel in the hilly Santa Teresa area of the city.  The following morning we walked around the corner to meet our hosts for the next five days, a Brazilian girl and Irish bloke whom we had rented a room from in their flat.  We then spent the day being proper tourists, going up to meet Christ the Redeemer (along with hundreds of others) and then getting the bus back, unfortunately missing our stop and ending up 20 miles out of the city in a dodgy area!!  Given the lack of Portuguese we speak, and the fact that we were going against all travel advice by being in an 'unsavory' area after day, we surprised we got back with no horror stories other than a sweaty/stressful 3hr journey back by bus/train/bus/walk.  Our hosts couldn't believe it either (think my St Christopher pendent is looking after us).  Needless to say a few beers were had that night.

Friday we had some retail therapy (as much as possible given the prices in Rio).  Then visited some more sights and watched the sunset over a few drinks in lively Lapa district.

Yesterday we had a few hours 'beauty/horror spotting' along Copacabana beach, we invented a new game 'wrong thong or hot thong'.  After another nightmare with the buses (had to wait an hour for the right one), we had a quick shower and then travelled out to the 'burbs again by metro and train to watch Rios biggest team Flamengo Vs Internacional.  Great atmosphere (although Martin was not happy about the lack of beer on sale) with the band continually playing, the final score was 3-3. 

We hit the beach again today, Ipanema this time.  I like the fact the everyone has a Cerveja or caipirinha in their hand whilst sunbathing.  Lots of surfers and volleyball to watch.  Another nice sunset and then back to pack ready for our next country...Iguacu falls then Argentina.