I left Rio about 2 weeks ago and embarked on the final leg of my year long around-the-world adventure in continent number 5 North America. I met up with Tim in Boston in time for some 4th of July madness, and we have since travelled north through the forests of Vermont, entered Canada and French speaking Quebec, partied in the capital Ottawa and are now relaxing by Lake Ontario in a place called Kingston.
The trip has been great so far – so much to talk about, but as is usual with travelling (and to my surprise in US and Canada) the internet hasn’t been great. Many hotels have a net connection but it often costs to use or is too
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At around 8.30 this morning on the way to our Rio volunteering job, Marju and I were treated to a bit of excitement in the form of a fire at Cantagalo Metro station in Copacabana.
Thick brown smoke was pouring up the escalator at the main entrance to Cantagalo on Xavier da Silver. Several dopey Brazilians were still using the escalator, which brought back memories of watching the Kings Cross fire on TV when I was young. Rather pensive to enter the metro at all, Marju and I walked around to the other entrance which is conveniently located opposite a fire station. A gaggle of Rio’s finest were hanging around the entrance, so I went over to do my
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Today is a bank holiday in Rio, so there isn’t much going on except sunbathing and relaxing (as well as drilling of course – there is always someone drilling on a bank holiday!) It’s given me a good chance to catch up on some pictures from around the world which I thought I’d share.
As one of my favourite countries in the world, I was saddened to hear of the volcano and then the storm which hit Guatemala this week. Boston.com always have some incredible pictures of current events and this weeks gallery of Guatemala pictures are no exception. Two particularly awesome pictures are Picture number 5 and Picture number 34. I hope little Melanie
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If you are considering sending a parcel from England to Brazil I have some advice for you. Don’t expect it to arrive any time soon!
My mother kindly sent me a package of random things you can’t buy in Rio, thanks to Brazil’s crazy high import taxes, (which are around 60% when you add the import duty, import sales tax and maritime transport duty together) on 5th May 2010. The parcel was sent via airmail at a cost of £59. It’s not particularly big, nor does it weigh much, but air mail isn’t cheap.
Today is June 2nd and the package still hasn’t arrived…
But…thanks to the new (or at least new to me) international package tracking service and reference number,
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