Wonderlust

Last week we spent learning to dive in Arraial do Cabo. We stayed in the dive resort, which also seemed to be our instructors house. When we arrived he had a hareem of 4 women staying with him and as he put us up in what appeared to be his bedroom, it appeared that alas he had to bunk in with these 4 women.

There were loads of dive schools in Arraial doi Cabo, but we managed to pick the one that was some guys house with a little open top motor to carry all the diving gear that stalled everytime it stopped and stuff fell of it at every bend. It was very friendly though and we now have our Padi's.

We arrived in Arraial do Cabo on the Monday at lunchtime and immediately went to a hotel pool the size of our lounge back home and had our first lesson all scuba'd up with 2 hotel guests at the other end of the pool. The main difficulty I had was in not realising this tiny pool had a deep and shallow end and so had to ask why I kept sinking and floating when I swam at the bottom. Dan tried to blow up his life vest with air from his lungs rather than fill it from the tank from the bottom of the pool. So having mastered all of this the following 2 days we spent diving in the ocean with Marcello (our instructor) and then the final dive alone.

There's loads of aquatic life. I just wish I knew what a lot of it was. We saw turtles, which was very exciting, rays, puffer fish, scorpion fish, conga eels, spider crabs and a crab that looked like a clam with little yellow legs.

It also rained a lot here. We caught the bus back to Rio and spent a night there in a hotel where the guy behind the desk spotted I was English and was very pleased to tell us that he could speak in an American accent. He spent the next ten minutes saying bottle of water in an American accent until some other guys came to check in and we made our escape.

On Thursday after a 7 hour bus ride from Rio we arrived in Sau Paulo, the business capital of Brazil. Lots of skyscrapers and city types, so naturally with my pink crocs and Dan's bleach stained shorts we blend right in.

The main problem I'm having in Brazil is that when the pavements get wet, my crocs turn into ice scates, and as several people wash their section of pavement daily I'm slipping and sliding my way round. So far I've only ended up on the floor once!

Slowly we're picking up a few words of Portugeuse, but gestures remain our staple language. We've taken to pointing to other's meals in cafe's to order our food. The people are really helpful and seem to find us quite amusing.

This evening we take a sleeper bus to the Iguacu falls (15 hours).

Brazillian Big Brother appears to dominate the headlines of most of the national newspapers.