24/12 Christmas Eve

Saturday 24 November                         Twas the night before Christmas

And all over the hostel, bed bugs were crawling!!! There is a bit of dramatic irony in that because we didn’t learn that until tomorrow but the title was too good to miss.

We had limited ambitions for today – train to Copacabana to see the beach and particularly the fort at the Southern end. It was after 11am and already HOTT. We walked from the headland which divides Ipanema and the other beaches from Copacabana. They were all jampacked with bodies in various shades of brown-ebony, with bikinis in the scale from minute to microscopic. One-pieces were few and far between – only worn by the very old. Nobody went topless but there was a high proportion of backless bottoms, which some of the larger ladies wore like colonic floss.

This is Arpoador beach with Ipanema central and Leblon at the far side of the bay.

As it turned out, the fort was closed, despite advice from the desk girl who claimed to have phoned that morning. But we did see our first BAG SNATCH! A sudden flurry of activity about 30m ahead of us and there was a woman and a young man tugging at the strap of a shoulder bag. She prevailed and he jogged up the street towards us, striding it out a bit as he turned the corner away from us. He didn’t look flustered and she wasn’t yelling – just glowering after him. Not a lot of drama at all. I have read that muggings in South Africa often occur in crowded areas and people just walk by. Silly woman still walked on down the road afterwards with the bag hanging at her side from one hand. There were another 4 boys somewhat smaller and about the same shade of dark brown wandering up the road following the other one. They walked close by us but didn’t try anything.

We were very happy to sit out the afternoon at the hostel. The German girls drummed up some interest in a celebratory dinner and bought a whole lot of stuff. We went shopping with them and chipped in. They have been borrowing our laptop for skyping family in Germany. Eventually about a dozen of us piled in and enjoyed the mixed snacky repast. We stayed up until almost midnight then folded, after skyping the family at Toodyay early on Christmas morning and catching 5.9 of the grandchildren. Cass is due in 2 weeks.