Next stop ... Brazil!

My entry into Brazil was a bit bumpy!  I left Argentina on a night bus all excited to be going to a new country for new adventures ... however on arrival in Brazil I found that my bag had been liberated from me as I slept! 

It was all a bit traumatic spending my first few hours in the country calling the bank to cancel cards, trying to remember what was in the bag ... apart from my laptop (still gutted about that!) and then reporting the theft in a new language!  Despite the trauma, it had to be one of the best entries into a new country that I have experienced... I was well looked after by everyone, Lucy was on hand to buy me a cup of tea and I was hugged by all of the bus drivers which was very sweet.  In Rio we located the tourist police in the bus station and they explained that we would have to go to the main police station in Copacabana to fill in the paper work.  We all groaned at the thought of making this trip with our bags, in a new city, by public transport ... until they said that someone was on their way to pick us up!

While we waited we chatted in pigeon spanish/ english/ portugese ... I was asked if I knew the royal family, whether I was a soldier and whether I would like to go on a date; my friend was told he looked like pop star and berated for wearing socks with trainers.  When our ride arrived we were waved goodbye and blown kisses to! 

We were then escorted to the main police station in a police car; we darted through the traffic with the sirens on, made a stop to one of the policeman's girlfriends and generally had a guided tour of the wonderful Rio, passing by Sugar Loaf mountain, Christ the Redeemer, flavelas and Copacobana beach. 

An hour of filling in paperwork later we were off again in our high speed police car back to the bus station ... driving over central reservations when turnings were missed and listening to Ace of Base on their mobile phones.  I'll never be sure whether my recollection of events has been impacted by the shock of waking up on a bus to find my belongings gone ... or whether this really was one of the most surreal moments of my trip!