Day 21 in the Big Brutha Special Bus

DAY OF THE DEAD

Number of hours in the Special Bus: 0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Number of home-made Caipirinhas: too many!

Number of surprise birthdays: 1

Number of shops open in which to buy said surprise birthday things: 0

Today is a kindof bank holiday, Remembrance Day at home, Day of the Dead here! And it was in fact pretty dead around town. All the shops were shut in the AM which foiled mine and Vikki´s plan to buy things for Lisa´s early birthday party which we planned to hold that evening. Also meant all we couldn´t get all the souvenirs we were hoping to get.

Instead we headed to Ipanema Beach to get sunburnt, swim, drink beer, buy overly expensive ice creams, sarongs, corn on the cob, lot´s o´water please and some tasteless prawn cracker-y-esque tasteless things. When we were all sufficiently pink enough we headed back to see if the shops had open. Fortunately some had so it was full steam ahead to try and lose Lisa (in the nicest possible way) and buy stuff.

In our quitet time wisdom John decided that we should definitely try and make our own Caipirinhas. One can of pure Caipirinha alcohol (Cachaca run) was about 50p...we got about eight. It was definitely enough to send us over the edge before we evn left the hostel to go out that evening! Our first attempt looked a lot like pond water, which we drank in true pikey fashion! Enter Angela with the magic fingers (and the correct sugar) who shows us how it is done. Then we had Lisa´s surprise birthday, with singing and guitars and cake. And then to the streets of Lapa and maybe some Samba!

We lost Kit not long after this, it´s just like being at uni again! He went home or something :)