Christ, St George and Visa trouble

On Monday we hooked up with some Irish friends, April and Dan, who we met in Barriloche and incredibly enough bumped into at the Paraty bus station! Here in Rio it was a holiday to celebrate St Geogre, or Jorge as he's known here, which meant there was a huge concert on Copacabana beach. Never has the name been so widely celebrated I'm sure - all the artists were called Jorge, all the songs were about Jorge (well nearly), Jorge was written in lights as big as a house....well, you get the drift. It was kinda cheesy music to be honest, though they threw in the odd classic to keep the crowds happy!

The next day we went up to the statue of Christ the Redeemer who overlooks the whole city. Our host Eric in Santa Teresa assured us we could walk down to the cog train that winds its way up to the statue. Thankfully it was all down hill but the people who live round there must have legs of steel - at one point we walked down the longest stairs in the world, at least it felt like it and by the time we got to the train our knees were tingling. Weak flatlanders. The train winds it way up the steep hillside and then you emerge to some truly incredible views of the city.

From Rio de Janeiro

On a slightly more annoying note it currently looks like our plans they are a changin' due to the difficulty in obtaining Visas for Leah. We optimistically thought that we'd apply for the central America visas here in Rio, but it appears as though there will be no way to do this so the chances are we'll be heading for home after Venezuela. We've not given up hope yet, but the embassy/consulate people are pretty unhelpful in most cases. The Mexican consulate explained very helpfully how we'd have to return to countryof residence to apply, i.e London. From Brasil to London to get into Mexico. At times like this I realise how great it is to have a UK passport.

And finallee, Sri Lanka play Australia tomorrow in the Cricket World Cup final - go Sri Lanka go!