two days of adventure!

we knew sunday was going to be an exciting one when we were woken by the sounds of an almighty gun fight going on somewhere (hopefully far off), there was machine guns and petrol bombs the lot! anyway that bit is completely irrelevent, except that it happened and i found it exciting. once we had breakfast, john had a read through his lonely plante guide and we decided we were going to go to an niteroi, an island just off rio and explore one of its secluded beaches. so once wed got everything ready we headed off to the bus stop, only when we were there did we realise that our plan had some flaws; we would have to catch a bus into the centre and then walk to thye ferry dock (the centre is apparently not a safe place to be on a sunday) and then on the way back wed have to be in the centre at night (even worse. so after much discussion we did the sensible thing and went anyway! once the bus dropped us off we set off in stealth mode dashing from cover to cover (ok that bits not true) until we reached the ferry dock. the centre was amazinlgy abandoned i couldnt believe it, it was like something out of 28 days later. anyway we managed to catch teh ferry and set off to niteroi and wide sandy beaches! the ferry journey itself was quite a view, and was even better on the way bac with the sun setting over rio! upon arriving in niteroi we had to catch the no 38 bus to the beach; finding the no 38 bus was easy, catching it however was not. after the 4th time of it passing us we managed to catch it, it was, by this point, ridiculously crowded and for the next 50 minutes we were entagled in a mass of arms legs and bodies. finally we arrived at the beach to find it was absoloutely packed full of people! i suppose a secluded beach near to rio on a sunday is too much to ask for! ah well, we swam and messed around and had fun, before catching the crowded bus back, then the ferry as the sun set over rio, then speed walking into the centre to catch the bus to take us back to our hotel! mission complete!
then yesterday, i stupidly agreed to go on a hike up corcovado (the mountain with the statue of christ on top). the walk was more of a scramble through jungle then a hike! but still the views were pretty amazing! and despite feeling famished and exhausted by the end of it i reckon it was just about worth it!
so yeah, its been a fun couple of days! the weather has turned stupidly humid, so i envy you people back home who can feel the cold!
keep enjoying england for me!
lots of love to you all!
andrew