We've now done Rio! It's been brilliant. Jo and I arrived on Friday after our final overnight bus journey, which didn't turn out to be too bad. We got to our hostel in the Humaita part of the city at 6:30 a.m., so they kindly let us have a room until ours was ready, and we had a little nap. Whilst we waited for Maggie and Dave and Carly and Nick to join us tomorrow, we toured the Centro area for the day. The main square, Praça Floriano, was surrounded by impressive buildings, particularly the good-looking Teatro Municipal. From here we wandered past dirty skyscrapers and along busy streets, in what was actually a really pleasant atmosphere. Lunch was good fun. We went along the cool Travessa do Comércio, a narrow street lined with colonial townhouses and with restaurants and cafes spilling out into the street. We picked somewhere that seemed busy and got 'picanha' (rump steak) to share with rice and beans, chips and salad. We also managed to fit in visits to the fancy Igreja de NS de Candelária and the Mosteiro de São Bento, which was perched on a nearby hillside.

Saturday took us over to Copacabana, where we expected to meet the others at our apartment. We had a leisurely time getting over there, but when we arrived, we found out they'd beaten us to the new place! It wasn't long before they turned up though, and we spent ages sat around the table catching up. It was great to see them all again, considering we've been away for so long now, especially for Jo. The apartment was perfect, with a large lounge area, a tiny kitchen, a bathroom, and a double bedroom and one with two bunk beds. We set off on the Metro over to Centro again to jump on the 'bonde' (tram) up to Santa Teresa. Wealthy commuters used to catch it, as Santa Teresa was an upper-class neighbourhood at the start of the twentieth century. Nowadays, the ride is only really frequented by tourists. We had a group of Brazilians who pushed right into the queue behind us, and who were then extremely loud and boisterous when the tram moved off with a sudden jerk! It wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it was definitely a spectacle, with people clinging onto the sides of the tram as we lurched our way across the Arcos de Lapa, with a steep drop down to the square and road below. We arrived at Largo dos Guimaraes and stopped there for lunch. Dinner that evening turned into a bit of a performance, with us getting a taxi over to the Lagoa neighbourhood, only to find out the market we were going to visit was closed! We stayed in the same taxi with a crazy driver who kept chatting away at Carly in Portuguese, serenading her with ballads on his stereo as we made our way to Leme for dinner. We had a huge meal of steak with all the trimmings...One of the best parts of the day was heading back to our apartment along the beachfront promenade. This really gave us a good understanding of how beautiful Rio is, with its twinkling foreshore, expanse of beach and looming mountains visible despite the darkness. And we felt totally safe!

Day three in Rio took us to one of our highlights on a gorgeous day. Sugarloaf Mountain was brilliant. We got a cablecar up to the first level, where we were rewarded with awesome views out over Botafogo and Flamengo, and over the bay towards the city of Niteroi, with the Cristo Redentor looming in the hills behind the suburbs. There were tons of condors circling around the mountain (Maggie got very excited about them), and the sky was completely blue. The sea really sparkled with the glint of the sun, and the beaches looked pristine and empty from such a height. You really realised just how beautiful the city is. Stopping here allowed us to get close to the rock climbers who were making their arduous ascent up the mountain. They completely trusted their ropes and were leaning back on them over the edge, dangling over the abyss to check on their partners. We also got up close and personal with a tiny tamarind monkey, cheekily munching on scraps of tourists' sanwiches. It was miniscule and had a funny little moustache that made it seem prematurely aged. We jumped on another cable car that took us up to the summit of Sugarloaf. From here we got even better views, being able to see Copacabana beach as well. This was where we headed after lunch. We collapsed on the sand for the rest of the day, seeing as it was such perfect weather. Being so wide and long, it wasn't rammed despite being busy. It was a great place to people watch, with vendors selling food, drinks, clothing and henna tattoos passing by at least every 30 seconds and people of all shapes and sizes enjoying the sun.

Yesterday we visited another must-see in Rio. We got over to the Corcovado train station, where a cog train departed every 30 minutes, winding its way up Corcovado mountain and through Tijuca National Park, the only spot of Atlantic rainforest left in the vicinity of Rio. At the top, gazing down benevolently upon the city and with his arms wide in an all-embracing gesture, was the ginormous Cristo Redentor. It was one of the windiest places I've ever stood in my life, with huge gusts actually scaring me, as I felt I could be blown over the edge! Our pictures are hilarious, with windswept hair, eyes closed against the wind's force, and clothes billowing! It was perfectly clear, however, and we got majestic views over the city, including Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana beach, the Maracana football stadium and the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. It's certainly worth the hype, although we got really cold up there with the wind. We went over to Ipanema beach for the afternoon, but the wind that we'd experienced at the Cristo Redentor had set in, and rainclouds began to appear on the horizon. The beach was an absolutely beautiful stretch of sand, with verdant green mountains looming at the far end, but the wind ensured all the sand was being kicked up, so we only hung around long enough to eat lunch. We had to give up sunbathing for the day! In the evening we visited an all-you-can-eat 'churrascaria' (barbecued meat). It was great, with absolutely tons of food and no messing about: the meat came round to our table frequently, on skewers and lathered in salt. It was really tasty and tender, and we had lots of other food to choose from including salads, pastries, sushi, eggs and carpaccio. It turned, however, into an opportunity to eat a heart attack inducing amount of steak!

On our last day in Rio we ventured out into a very different side of the city. We headed to Rocinha (a favela), on a guided tour of one of Rio's slums. Our guide, Carlos, was friendly, informative and spoke great English. Rocinha was huge, and not necessarily what we all expected. Instead of tarpaulins and mud huts we found solid brick and mortar houses, though still built extremely close together. The favela was a kind of mini-city within the city, where everything to buy is cheaper. It had banks, supermarkets, a hospital, schools, churches, etc...However, it was a lot dirtier than the rest of the city; electricity cables ran everywhere and anywhere, tangled in a spider's web; and there remained a modicum of disorder within the order. On two separate occasions we passed gun-toting drug dealers, who maintain a visible presence (druges here are also cheaper than elsewhere in the city). It definitely seemed like the social policies of Lula (Brazil's president) were taking root though. Our second slum, Vila Canoas, was a lot smaller than Rocinha and stood across the road, literally, from Rio's wealthiest neighbourhood. We visited a charity-run school, had an exceptionally strong 'caipirinha' (sugarcane alcohol cocktail mixed with ice, lime and sugar) and wandered the labyrinth streets. You could definitely see how the dank conditions and lack of light could spread diseases like T.B. It was a really interesting experience. This evening we visited a samba club in the Lapa district of the city. We had a really fun evening in Rio Scenarium, and the building was amazing. It was full of loads of antiques on all three levels, and had a balcony right above the dancefloor and stage, so you could peer down on the band and dancers. The band, a samba rock group, were really good, and some of the dancing was incredible. We had a great time watching the proceedings below, and even had a go ourselves towards the end of the night (of course, we didn't have a clue and were awful!).

Sorry that the blog was so long! As you can see, we got up to loads here, and really enjoyed ourselves. Next stop is Ilha Grande, further west.