Seeing Rio by bike was great - can`t go wrong if I just follow the beach roads up and down the city I thought - hmmmm, that was until Sunday when all of those beach roads become one way, which led to a few tricky moments.
After a few days of tyre searching and beach life at Copacabana and Ipanema, where the people were very impressed with Thelma, and I quickly got into the local habit of just parking anywhere on the pavement - though it's a bit of a different prospect when it's a BMW trying to discreetly trundle along the pavement as opposed to the 125cc bikes that the locals ride.
The tyre search was frustrating at times because to begin with I felt like I was invisible in the bike shops - they just don't seem to expect women to be actually wanting to buy anything so they would look around me and through me for a `real` customer. Also the word for tyre is pneu - exactly!!! Just how do you pronounce it? - well it sounds like PNAYO which for some reason just doesn't want to roll naturally off my English tongue, so I would then appear tongue-tied as I attempted to explain why I was there. Eventually proving successful and in possession of a Michelin I was able to leave town saying goodbye to the comforts of my friend's flat overlooking Ipanema Beach. Looking ahead to days on the road and camping again.