Going to Rio de Janeiro on Saturday to teach on an EMBO course. The temperature right now (early morning in Rio) is 23 degrees C. Time to dust off the flip flops.

Am leaving Ireland on Saturday afternoon late. Flying to Charles de Gaulle airport, just outside Paris. After a very short stop-over, it’s on to Rio, where I shall arrive on Sunday morning at about 6 AM.

I will try to dodge the dodgy taxi drivers that will offer to drive me to my hotel for 120 Reais (about 40 Euro), when it should cost about 30 Reais (about 10 Euro). I might even decide to get the bus, which is a very nice bus, where it will cost about 5 Reais, but probably I will either use my rubbish Portuguese to bargain down the taxi drivers, or I will just try to find one that is offering a good price.

The nice thing about arriving in Rio at that time of the day is that it is breakfast time. So, for me this means going to a very lovely cafe where one of the waiters looks like Wayne Rooney. I know that sounds strange, but it is true, a waiter that has been working in this cafe for years looks like Wayne Rooney and I find it amusing to be served breakfast by a Wayne Rooney look-a-like.

I will meet up with my buddies first - there are five of us teaching on the course, two English, one Swiss, one Canadian and one Irish (me).

After breakfast, it is time to go for a walk. Lots of sunscreen first, perhaps an hat, because the sun is really direct - we are only a few degrees south of the Equator. We will usually walk from the top of Ipanema, where our hotal is to be found and all the way to Arpoador point, which is one of my favourite places on the planet. Arpoador is a big rock that juts out into the water. This photo is one I took of the happiest man in the world, who was fishing on Arpoador point last year. He was pulling fish out of the water like there was no tomorrow - clearly it was a good day.

Rio gets a bad reputation for the violence and to a certain extent it is justified. I have had guns pointed at me twice in Rio. The first time I was in a taxi and the driver refused to stop at a checkpoint. The cops got into their car and chased the taxi, made it stop and came over to the car with all the guns out. This guy came to my window at the back of the cab and asked me for ‘identificao’. I gave him my passport. It was night so he brought it up to the headlight of the car to look at it. He then brought it back to me, handed it to me and said “Vi con Deus”, which I wasn’t sure meant “Go with God” or “Go to God”. Scared the bejaysus out of me.

Anyway, I know how to look after myself there now, so hopefully it will be an uneventful trip.

I will be teaching in the Botanical Gardens in Rio, which as you can probably imagine are pretty magnificent - from the Brazil tree, after which the country was named, to the carnivorous, insect eating flowers. It is non-stop flora and fauna novelty.

At night, Rio is no less pretty. Its siting at the mouth of a river and the fact that the water comes into the middle of the city (the lagoon - Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas - is pretty cool) and the fact that there are steep hills too high to build on right in the middle of the city make it a really different place to any other major city in the world.

So, roll on Wayne Rooney, sandy beaches, fishermen, flowers, Suco de Laranja (orange juice), Caipirhina (the local firewater), Christ the Redeemer, The Sugar Loaf mountain (scene from the bond film), and a bit of science. Sweet.

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