Pantanal

I have just seen on the BBC website that it has been snowing back home in Blighty-crikey! Snow couldn~t be further from my mind here in stiflingly hot Cuiaba. As I have said previously, I left Salvador on Monday morning and was sad to leave behind Thiago and his friends who had kept me company for the week. Actually, I only had a few hours to feel sorry for myself because logging onto MSN, I was chatting to a Colombian friend, Camilo, who told me that a Brazilian friend of ours was from Cuiaba.

Running out of time in this strange internet cafe/classroom, I sent her a very quick message telling her that I was in town and the name of the hostel. A couple of hours later I got a phone call and an hour after that I was living the high life of Cuiaba in the company of Daniela and some ofher delightful friends.



Daniela was in the same class as Camilo but left London two years ago. We chatted a lot on MSN when she first went back but the chatting eventually fizzled out... until we were actually sitting next to each other here in Brazil! We were both a bit taken aback really- me because I hadn~t realised that I was going to her city and her because she was wondering what the hell I was doing there!

Needless to say, some beers were drunk and in fact, despite my pleas for restraint, Dani only stopped ordering when the barman refused to sell any more alcohol- looking around, I saw that the rest of the tables had all been packed away and the staff were waiting to go home, so I dont think that it was anything personal!

Anyway I had to get up early the next day for a bit of an adventure- in fact, the reason that I am here, so far from the beach, near to the Bolivian border- the Pantanal!

The Pantanal- or Swamp- contains an area of almost unimaginable biodiversity. There are alligators just lazing around near the roads, birds all screeching their calls across the skies, buffalo wallowing in pools of water



and so much more. We drove along the highway until the tarmac petered out and then we drove the unsealed road for another hour or so- stopping for photos along the way.



But it had been raining the day before the car that we were in was a long way from being the Chelsea tractor so necessary for ferrying kids to school in the dangerous cities of England. Finally, after some time getting the car out of one bit of swamp, the driver, Marco, had to abandon it and go and get help



while I was left sitting under a tree in the 34 degree sweltering heat of the midday sun. At one point a wild mule cantered out of the bush to see what I was up before scampering away to shout to its friends. The bugs loved me! I spent quite some time flicking them off until I remembered Rachels parting gift of some bug spray which I had in my bag. I sprayed, they flew away but came back to rest of the only bits of me not covered, face, fingers etc. Sigh.

About an hour later I heard a chugging noise, I prayed that it would be Marco and sure enough he emerged on the trailer being pulled by the tractor belonging to the pousada (guest house) that we were heading to. Hooray for that!

We arrived at the pousada and Marco disappeared. Well, he wasn~t that much help anyway, given that he couldn~t speak English and my Portuguese extends as far as ordering beers and asking the way to the toilet. A table of people asked me to join them and I gladly did so. And it was fortunate that I did as it turned out that no provision had been made for my arrival, ie there was no English speaking tour guide waiting for me as promised.

Hum, the Swiss couple at the table took matters into their hands and their English speaking tour guide told me that I could join their boat trip- I just had to wait another three hours. Poor Marco was supposed to be back in the city by then getting on with other work that the hostel had for him. The tour guide encouraged me to sit it out and told me that Marco couldn~t leave without me, despite the hostel worker wanting him to come back- even offering me some money back to ensure my timely return.

Stuff that, I had paid to see alligators and have wildlife pointed out to me in English and so that is what I did. I have been on many tours in the past where there has been no mention of swimming and then swimming has occurred so I had packed my tankini (hahaha) this time just in case. Which was great as I now found myself with several hours to kill and a swimming pool looking all inviting and, well, wet!

Well you couldnt imagine how crowded this poor tiny pool was- a large group of Brazilians were having the time of their lives in there but I got in and floated in a corner and chatted to the Swiss girl.

Eventually 4.30 came and we got on the boat to go down the river. And it was certainly worth the wait!



The birdlife was incredible. And we saw the world~s biggest rodent, capybara, everywhere- but seem to have forgotten to upload the photos here! Hahaha! Then we reached a part of the river and Walter killed the engine and started making funny honking noises.. turns out that he was calling the caiman out to be photographed





We saw tropical otters frolicking on the river banks and caiman just drifting past. Giant kingsfishers dove in and out of the water, it was amazing! The water was almost as hot as the day surrounding us.

Then it was down to business- catching the food for the stew that night- piranha stew that is!

We were each given a bamboo stick with a hook baited with meat. It was easy to feel the piranha tugging at the bait but a lot harder to convince them to stay on the hooks while being lifted out of the water. I finally hooked one but he wriggled free and leapt back into the water- I was quite glad really

Team Swiss got three or four but threw back the tiddlers while Team German finally bagged themselves one for the stewpot. The tour guide, needless to say, was a bit of a pro





We headed back to the pousada as the sun started to set



The capybara were everywhere by the time we arrived, I snapped a couple in the darkness. I kinda wanted to stay in Pantanal- the night noises had started, the insects buzzing and whirring, the frogs calling to each other, the caiman honking through the darkness... the sky was filled with stars and fireflies were flitting carelessly through the night.

But I had just paid for one day in this paradise and so came back to the city. I am visiting the Southern Pantanal next week when I get to Campo Grande and will be sure to spend a couple of nights there.

Tonight, more drinking with Dani of course!

Moving On

Well eventually I had to leave the safety of Thiago~s flat in Salvador and make it out on my own again. Thiago was a complete sweetie, he was sweet in London and even better in Brazil. I must say that Brazil suits him, he looks much healthier and happier- maybe it is the sun or the fact that he spends half of his day in bed (hi Thiago!). We went and met various friends of his with all differing levels of English- ranging from none to better than mine.

It is so interesting to meet my ex students in their natural environments and gives a weird change to the student-teacher dynamic- where suddenly I am the one with all the questions. Like, had I understood it correctly, that Brazilians use LEGAL to mean cool and DROGA (drugs) to mean like DAMN! Turns out that I was right! And we laughed about that and my misunderstanding of what a borrachareria was (borrachar -or er, cant remember- means drunk in Spanish so I thought that itwas a very honest way of advertising the places where you get drunk. Turns out that it is something to do with tyres instead)- and if you want a proper laugh, ask the nearest Brazilian what the Portuguese for KNIFE is!

For the last few nights we havent gone to bed until after the sun has come up so when I booked a flight for 6 am today it just seemed easier to stay up all night so Thiago could drive me to the airport.

We watched ~The Mummy Returns~ in Portuguese with Portuguese subtitles, turns out that it is enough like Spanish for me to basically follow films but I get completely lost when people start speaking it to me. Not least because whenever I heard Portuguese in London I had to tell people to speak in English- that doesn~t go down so well when you are in Brazil.

Thiago was very informative about Brazil and the history of Salvador= anything that he didnt know he just lied about! Though he did admit that the samba was created when a group of Brazilians came off the beach and tried to get the sand out of their Havaianas (fancy flip flops which are pretty much compulsory here- so much so that my ordinary sandals set off the security bleepers in two airports today- the immigration official looked at my shoes in digust but waved me through despite his better judgement).

So I am on my own again- I have had to dust off my Portuguese dictionary and start trying to understand stuff again. It is amazing how difficult people think that my life is going to be without the language- the tourist information guy at the airport today was in shock that I would think that I could catch a bus without some kind of crash course in the language.

Apparantely Cuiaba is famous for being hot- unlike the rest of Brazil which more resembles the Artic. At least everyone keeps telling me how hot it is and the guy at the airport, him again, wished me luck dealing with the heat! I think that it is like the Koreans thinking that their food is too hot for anyone else to handle, Brazilians think that no one can cope with the heat like them.

Given that I had been awake most of the night, I arrived in the hostel and went to sleep. Then I went out looking for a supermarket - no luck! This town seems to be mostly furniture shops which just dont make such a healthy meal option- not with the state of my teeth! But Thiago forced some biscuits upon me before I left this morning so I have something to fall back on.

I am in a very weird place writing this, by the way. I am in the corner of a classroom where some of the people are having a class and others are just updating their orkut accounts. The place also houses English and Spanish classes- weird! The teacher appears to just be talking to one person at the moment, does that mean that I can leave the room without asking permission? Very odd indeed!

Brazil, it is not all...

... beaches and bikinis, you know... but quite a lot of it is!



I am in Salvador still with an old student of mine. It is hot, I am lazy, so far it is perfect!





We have been to the beach, and lazed around in a friend of Thiago~s pool..



The beach is nice but gets a little crowded. But the water was glorious.



This is Thiago, could he look any more Brazilian! Hahaha!! Bless!



This is the historical centre of the city



There is a lot of bars and restaurants here and also a lot of churches!



Your avid blogger and her young friend. It has been very useful being with a Brazilian who could explain stuff to me, especially since today is the second round of the mayoral elections here and there has been pretty constant campaigning the whole time that I have been here- complete with catchy little ditties that get stuck in your head. Without Thiago I wouldnt have had a clue what it was all about. It has been driving him nuts! To the point that he has been throwing things at the trucks with music blaring out of them all day.

We have been out a couple of times too- to a friends house and to a pub last night to watch some live music. It has been a very relaxing week and has really made me want to learn Portuguese! Something that I thought would never happen as I am so faithful to Spanish. But I dont think that I have time to study and sightsee so I know which one will win!

Thats all for now- take care and I will catch up with you when I leave Salvador- it will happen one day!

Photos! Edited

I had forgotten what a tedious process this uploading photos lark is.

Anyway, here is the Jesus statue on the second time that I went up there on a clear day





This is a lovely place just a five minute ferry ride away from Porto Seguro, I went there on Sunday morning and wished that I had been there the whole time! The water was so warm...



Some goose laughing in front of Jesus. It was so much hotter the second time that I went up there- in fact I hadnt been intending to go back but I was walking around the lake and it was such a beautiful day and all of a sudden I was there! And then I got a local bus back to Copacabana which was really good as there is a real sense of achievement in catching a local bus! Especially one with a turnstile to get on it.



Ouro Preto- nice place with a larger nightlife than you might have expected. This is a photo from my new camera but unfortunately I have squashed it up a little to fit in on here. It is such a pretty place



View when the mist cleared a little on the first day of sightseeing- we had been up by Jesus and literally all we could see was a white mist so thick that it was like staring at a blank wall. Only the signs telling us what we could have been seeing had the fog not been there gave us any idea of where we were. Then suddenly the mist lifted and the crowd screamed with excitement and started elbowing people out of the way to get photos such as this. I have some that I took on the second day when it was clear but I like this one more somehow



traditional Brazilian footwear - more than just a flip flop- I actually bought some high heeled flip flops! And felt gloriously tall as I strutted along the beach at Copacabana- until the blisters started that is



This is just the smallest of a lot of floats out for the Gay Parade



And this is the food that sends my students in London all misty eyed when they think about it- tastes better than it looks! Well, it would have to really!



And up by Jesus again but on the sunny day- notice that the skin is not as white as it could be!



More food at an all you can eat buffet in Ouro Preto- I could eat this whole lot it turned out



Fireworks in a football stadium- are you sure thats a good idea... I thought that this was really weird! Get people riled up and then sell them explosives... hum!



This is one of the ferries going from Porto Seguro- it costs 2 reais to get over there and it is free to come back.. nice!



Guanabarra Bay in Rio, taken at the end of a day sightseeing up Surgar Loaf Mountain



If you want soapstones sculptures then Ouro Preto really is the place for you. This is a photo of Abi, the English girl that I went there with, shortly before I fell off my high heeled flip flops and someone kindly mended them for me



Believe it or not, the view wasn~t even this good when we first arrived!



Getting ready for the game in the largest football stadium in the world



English culture weirdly summed up with these three photos in this chain of English schools



My first beer in Brazil!



Ipanema Beach just after the rain on my first day in the country



Sandcastles are a little different here in Brazil


And this was on the toilet door at the airport in Portugal- man, they are hard on smokers!

Excuse the Typos!

The internet connection here in Brazil is, on average, about 50% slower than sending messages via carrier pigeon, with facebook taking longer to load than for the British coastline to erode. For that reason, I am often typing a good three to five words ahead of those that I can see on the screen in front of me. And that is my excuse for the bad spelling in any previous or subsequent postings.

This is just a quick one to let you know that what I thought would be a 16 hour bus journey eventually evolved into an 18 and a half hour one- phew! No one seemed able to tell me how long the bus journey would be- the estimates were anything from ten hours to more than ten hours- with the second being more correct as it turned out.

Now, imagine my horror, after an already substantial amount of time on the bus, when I nipped off to use the loo at a rest stop and came out to the wholly unreassuring site of my bus pulling out and driving away!!!! Eeekk!! And did I recognise any of the other passengers- well, all fairly tanned and Brazilian looking so no! Fortunately one of them recognised me, calmed me down and told me that the bus would be back- and to be fair it was- 20 fraught minutes later. Phew!

So I finally made it to Porto Seguro only to be told that what the Lonely Planet (that ever reliable book) has advertised as ´the backpacker spot in Porto Seguro´no longer exists. In fact, out of the three in the book, only one is still running and that was full apparently. Hum.

I have got a cheap hotel room for the night but it is a hotel not a hostel so I am alone:( but that is OK- I plan to have an early start tomorrow and hit the beach. Salvador in a couple of days, where my ex-student is promising to show me all the hot guys:):)

Bus Terminaled

Well here I am again- alone again. I have spent the last couple of days with a girl that I met in Rio. While it was good to have some company she was a little erratic to say the least with a habit of speaking only German whilst drunk (she is English). We arrived in Ouro Preto just after six in the am and went to the hostel. Not finding anyone around despite our reservation we just let ourselves in, helped ourselves to bed linen and crawled into bed. The staff didn´t find us until after ten.

We spent the day walked around the city, it is very hill! It is a UNESCO World heritage site so quite easy on the eyes all in all. In the evening we went to a bar and the guys took it in turns to come over to our table. That is until some sleazy old guy decided that he wanted to talk to us, hum, where were our knights in shining armour now? Long gone it seems as this guy would not leave us alone for over an hour until we invited ourselves onto someone else´s table.

Fortunately the new table was very cool and we went with them to another bar. Which did mean that our sightseeing plans for the next day didn´t go entirely as planned!

In fact, yesterday was a day of very little acheivement. There were a very more people in the hostel by the time that we woke up so we all went out for dinner and beer last night- back to the same bar but minus the sleazy guy.

During the day we had bumped into a Brazilian girl that we had met in Rio and she explained some of the strange goings on that we had seen around the town. Namely, all the young boys with strangely shaved heads carrying signs. Apparantely this is a ´battle´for a place in the uni fraternities. There are limited places so each fresher (in this town known as~´bixo´or child) has to prove his worth.

He does this by having the initials of the fraternity shaved into his head and basically taking a lot of crap off everyone for up to six months. And carrying a sign- often larger than the bixo himself, which declares that he is a bixo and wants to get into a particular frat house. This sign goes everywhere- even to the loo- for around six months! That is hardcore! And at the end of that time they may have to start all over again if they don´t get accepted by the fraternity.

Dani, the Brazilian girl, also took us into one of these frat houses- a surprisingly clean and nice place to live!

Brazil was playing Colombia last night but we didn´t see the match as I elected to stay in the bar with a German girl from the hostel and a table full of Brazilian guys- I am getting a little better at understanding Portuguese but the Spanish still comes more easily.

Now I am in the bus terminal in Belo Horizonte, just a couple of hours away from Ouro Preto, waiting for my bus to Porto Seguro in Bahia... which is quite a long way away if you care to look at the map. I have quite a lot of time to kill as the tourist information centre in Ouro Preto told me that the bus would be at three but actually it isn´t until 6.30.

It was a bit of a struggle buying the ticket as I ran around different counters trying to find someone that would sell me the ticket that I wanted.. got it in the end and went and put all my carefully packed bags in a locker. Walked away feeling quite smug, then realised that I have left my suntan lotion, sunglasses and USB cable in the bloody locker. Damn it! It is 33 degrees outside so I will finish this, buy some lunch and indulge in some heavy duty cowering in the shade somewhere for a couple of hours.

Ouro Preto

I am not going to lie to you people! It is hot here in Brazil and I have a weird patch of sunburn on my ankle and it just doesn´t seem to want to go away! I have left Rio and I am in a pretty town- Ouro Preto- nestled in the mountains. I came here with a girl I met in Rio which is kinda cool as we went out for a couple of jars last night. My first night out in Brazil!

Ouro Preto seems a friendly place and we were adopted by a group of students last night which was cool. And today we bumped into a Brazilian girl we met in Rio who took us to a fraternity house- interesting! I´ll tell you more about that when I have some photos for you.

I really was going to put some photos up here today but there is only one USB port and I HAVE to recharge my MP3 player before starting my 16 hour bus trip tomorrow- I know, it is all me me me!

Anyway, the sun is shining on the screen here making typing this a bit of a mare so I will head off here and give you a proper update later!

Gay Parade

Yesterday was a busy day on Copacabana- for several reasons; Firstly there was the World Championship Half Marathon. As that finished it was time for the Gay Parade. And it was a holiday yesterday and the hottest day since I arrived.


All nice and good.


So I went down to watch the parade and take some photos- typically my most homophobic students have been Brazilian so I was very interested to see what the atmosphere would be like. In fact, it was nice and chilled and I perched myself on the edge of the prom with a cold beer and my camera and awaited the actual parade.


Then a woman came over and asked me if I spoke English. She looked quite agitated and got her husband to translate for her. It turned out that she had overheard some people plotting to steal my camera and the wonderful woman came over to warn me! So I got in a taxi and hightailed it back to the hostel and stowed it safely away in my locker.

I did head back to the beach later but was a bit too nervous to stay there for long. But I had a good evening in the hostel and discovered that another girl was planning to go to Ouro Preto tonight too and still another one actually lives there! So I think that we are all going together now or at least meeting up there. Perfect.

And I still did better than the poor Ecuadorian in the hostel whose camera was stolen right out of his pocket and he even saw it happen!

Peek-a-boo Jesus

I am still in Rio- I can think of worse places to be! As previously stated, the weather (or time) hasn't been great. But it brightened up the other morning so I went to the beach to kill a little time before my trip in the afternoon. Shortly after one the mini bus turned up and about half of the hostel got on it which was cool- loads of people to talk to!

As we drove out towards the hill where the giant Jesus lives we couldn't help but notice that the clouds kept obscuring our view of him. Hum, maybe it would be OK when we got up there.... it wasn't! It was worse! Rio had disappeared beneath a thick white sheet of cloud and Jesus himselves was very much playing a game of 'now you see me, now you don't' To be honest it was hilarious!!

Other tourists didn't seem that impressed but I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all! Then suddenly, gasp, the clouds cleared for a second. Literally a second, they had come back by the time I got my camera out- ho hum, so much for the shiny new camera getting its first outing!

Finally, it cleared enough that we could see the city and Jesus's face, we took photos and came back down the mountain much happier. By the time we got to Sugar Loaf Mountain we had a lovely clear view of Jesus and the city. Glorious!

And in fact everytime that I have seen Jesus (or Christ the Redeemer as the statue is officially known- and it is his 77th birthday today) he has been bathed in glorious sunshine- tut! And I will share the results of the new camera just the moment I can be bothered (internet connection here in the hostel is not very fast!).

Yesterday it was even hotter- as ever I started the day on the beach and then came back to the hostel before it got too hot. In the evening I went to watch a football match in the largest stadium in the world- it was big and it felt like the whole world had turned up to support Flamengo. Shame that the team did little to deserve the rapture of the crowd- losing 3-0 to Athletico. As the ball went into the net for the third time, most of the fans just gave up and went home.

This morning I have been to the beach to watch the marathon being run in 27 degree heat and to the bus station to buy my ticket out of Rio- yes, having extended my stay by two nights already, I am getting on a bus at 11.30 tomorrow night to go to Ouro Preto. Which technically means that I still have today and tomorrow in Rio.

Bom!

The Time is Terrible

You see, that is what happens when you use the same word for time and weather. Like me being asked in my Spanish class what my favourite station was (it is the same word for station and season you see) or being told that if there was a llama in the boiler there would be hot water in the shower (llama means llama, flame and call in Spanish). So I have been told several times that the time is bad at the moment.

But bad no longer- the sun has come out today and I am off sightseeing with my new camera!

Raining in Rio

I have arrived. Well actually I arrived yesterday. My poor sis got up early yesterday morning to drive me to the airport, I also got up early. I was on a plane out of the UK and in Portugal by 8.30am. The airport in Porto is weirdly, big, clean and almost completely empty. Odd. There were only about 20 of us on the plane and I slept pretty much alll of the way.

The next plane however wasn´t really designed for someone with as ample a bottom as I but fortunately no one sat next to me so I could pop the armrest up and have a bit more space. At least until the woman in front of me put her seat back and nearly knocked me out. I moved.

The food was OK, the films were pretty dismal- though I did enjoyment the Brazilian one about a ´hock and holl´ band at high school:) The plane was full of old people which was kind of odd and no less than six people in wheelchairs got on board.

We landed at Rio at 4.30 but it was another 30 minutes before we got off the plane. Then we queued to get down the ramp, and again to have our bags x-rayed and again to go through Immigration. No one questioned my one way ticket, by the way, so I guess that I could have got away with not buying one for Argentina before I went, ah well! And I shot through immigration because I was in the non-Brazilian line.

Then I spent a rather long hour standing at the bag carousel waiting for even a glimpse of my bag. AN HOUR! When it finally crept onto the conveyer belt I felt like a proud mum at her kid´s sports day - ´Look, that one is mine!´- and when I got hold of it I felt like I had won the lottery. Then I joined another queue to get through customs. All in all it was quite a long day of queuing and it took two hours to get from the point when we touched Brazilian soil to me finally making it out of the airport.

Fortunately my driver was still waiting (there is a free airport pick up service from the hostel) and it took us an hour to get through the traffic to Copacabana where I was staying. We chatted away merrily in Spanish though I have a suspicion that it wasn´t all as Spanish as he claimed it to be.

And I slept soon after I had checked in.

Which is why I woke up at 5.30 and was out of the hostel by eight.

If it makes any of you feel any better, I got soaked walking along the beach in the rain an hour or so ago!

So not much to report yet, just thought I´d let you know that I am here:)

Last Few Goodbyes!

Today I made a bit of an expensive decision... I didn't buy a ticket for the train and had to pay a penalty which was a bit annoying.. but more expensive than that was my new Canon SLR digital camera



Finally packed



The suitcase is staying in the UK and the two backpacks are coming with me.

My last big goodbye was on Friday- here are some brave face and hugs photos



Me and David, a Colombian friend who is not and never has been a student of mine



me and my French friend, Perrine



Perrine's Brazilian boyfriend, and ex-student of mine, Gustavo



me and my American friend, Mel



Finally, an English friend, Cat who I met whilst fruitpicking in Australia.



The last goodbye of the night, my ex-student, Baby Alex.

On Saturday I went to my friend Rachel's house for the night which was lovely. Then we had dinner the next day in Clapham with Ben, Jon and Lucy, all very civilised.



And today is Monday so I have brought everything to my sister's. Felixstowe tomorrow then Rio on Wednesday.........eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk!

Packing

Travelling would be a lot more fun if it wasn't for all the packing involved. I have a week left in the UK but the new guy is moving into my bedroom today (must get out of bed before he finishes work!) so I have had to pack stuff up and get it out of the way for him. So Sunday I packed some stuff, Monday I packed more and my sister came over with a white van and white-vanned it over to her house in Essex. We made a couple of mistakes when stowing the stuff in the loft- namely a bag that should have gone up there that didn't and one that shouldn't have gone up there and did. All easily rectifiable.

But there was still a lot of stuff in my room- another black bin bag to take down to the rubbish house outside the flat and a hoofing great suitcase to go to my sister's. I have enlisted my flatmate, Jon, to help me get my stuff onto the train at West Ham- I reckon that I can just get a taxi from the station back to my sister's on Monday.

I am in turns terrified and terribly excited! I feel that I have some of the most amazing friends that I have ever had in London at the moment (even if I am the oldest by more years than I would care to mention) which makes it tricky to leave but one of us will leave and it may as well be me!

Leaving work was kind of strange too as I had only been there for five months or so. Working there had been so easy and stresfree compared to the beginning of the year. In March I moved from an enormous school to a much smaller and more personal one. I had loved working at the other school for over two years but didn't realise that I would like other places too. The move was a good one and made at the right time as I wouldn't have wanted to have moved before.

I am off to my cousin's later for a couple of nights but back to London for my goodbye party on Friday.

Can't believe that it is finally happening! This trip is something that I have been threatening to do since returning from Colombia last March. I was going to go in July this year but in January got invited to a wedding in September. I have missed so many weddings over the years but this was not one that I wanted to miss. Then it turned out perfectly as another friend got married just two weeks after the first wedding. I was glad to have been here for them and to visit my little friend in Stockholm.

It has been so long since I have regularly posted that I couldn't remember my sign in details for either this page or my flickr account- oops!

Anyway, I am flying to Rio next week - 8th October at 6.25am!