July 15-19 Florianopolis, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, snooty french and the latest terrorist weapon of choice, the Hang glider!

Bad news, my trusty old ixus 500 digital camera has bitten the dust, or the sand to be more precise. Whilst taking photos of the dunes in Florianopolis, there was a big gust of wind which clogged my camera with sand, now the camera refuses to work. Ahh well it´s time for a new camera anyway. Unfortunately, Brazil sucks if you want to buy a digital camera, they are overpriced and the range is very poor, so in the meantime i have bought a disposible camera, which i intend to put on CD and upload later this week. In the meantime, check out old mate Italy´s Youtube video of the view of Sao Paulo from the the Edificio Italiano.
Yasmin, Ryan and I arrived in a wet Sao Paulo early in the morning on the 16th after a 10 hour bus ride from Florianopolis. I had heard many stories about the crime in Sao Pàulo and had prepared myself for the worst, but it never came. I walked the streets day or night and felt quite comfortable. It probably had something to do with the area I was staying in. On the 17th I visited the Edificio Italia, which is the second tallest building in Sao Paulo, it was only 41 stories high but the views were spectacular. Sao Paulo is truly massive, it made Manhattan look like a bit of a lightweight.
Later that night, the tragic Sao Paulo plane crash happened.
The next morning, Ryan and Yas got up early and caught a bus to the beach town of Paraty and I headed to Rio de Janeiro by myself.
A 6 hour bus ride later and I found myself surrounded by the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Arriving in Rio de Janeiro was somewhat disappointing due to the weather. It was overcast and muggy, not really the setting I had expected. I quickly got a cab and headed to Ipanema passing iconic structures like Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf mountain. and settled into my hostel (which was even more disappointing than the weather). After dropping my stuff off I walked up Ipanema beach and got a Maracuya juice (the juices here are really cheap and good).
I went back to the Hostel to have a read, when I got into my dorm, there was a white looking guy sitting on the bunk under mine. I assumed he spoke english and greeted him with a ¨hi, hows it going, my names Ed. Whats yours?¨ he looked at me blankly like he didn´t understand and then said to me in a snotty, thick French accent ¨Pierre, do you speak Spanish?¨ I shook my head and answered ¨porquito, not enough to hold a proper conversation.¨ he sighed and asked almost rhetorically ¨do you speak Portuguese?¨ I shook my head and said ¨no but I can speak a little Cantonese if that helps? Ni hao ma? Bei ngoh sam goh cha siew baos¨ (translated means ¨how are you, could you please give me 3 roast pork buns¨ which is about the extent of my Cantonese) He looked at me blankly again, and went back to reading his book.
After my stupid conversation with Pierre, I headed downstairs and got stuck into a few beers. The bartender was English which was a bit of a relief and we had a brief chat about the crapness of the weather, he assured me it would come good in a day or two. I met a couple of other English folk and an Aussie bloke and had a yarn and a bit of a laugh before calling it a night.
Today I am gonna try and arrange some rock climbing because I have just been told that Hang Gliding has been banned for the rest of my time in Rio de Janeiro due to a ¨clear sky¨ security policy implemented for the Pan American games. Good idea, I can really see Osama getting on a hang glider and launching a 9/11 style kamakazi attack on the beach volley-ball final...
Needless to say, I am pretty pissed off about the hang gliding right now.