Just spent the last week in Rio which was a bit mad! When we finally got there and fought our way through the traffic jams and stifling heat, we discovered that it was experiencing the hottest heatwave ever and temperatures last week reached 50 degrees with about 5 million % humidity (Well, ok. That may be a slight exaggeration but the temperatures are real). It hit the mid-40s while we were there and in a city that normally has 7 million people added to which the carnival goers you just cannot imagine the heat, humidity, sweatiness and rivers running down our bodies. Yuk!

On the first night we all venturedout for a group dinner to Ipanema. 2 minutes into the journey we stopped next t a police car at the traffic lights. There was a machine gun pointing out of every window. Yikes! Now, that freaked me out. Had a great meal which cost us all of about GBP12 plus alcohol. I had wine for the first time in ages (roll on Argentina!) and we had an all you can eat buffet where the waiters came around every 20 seconds with marvellous cuts of meat that they cut off for you there and then. It was a carnivore's heaven and delicious!

Spent most of week stuffing money down my bra as you are recommended not to carry anything and people will swipe anything in your pockets. Increased by about 3 cup sizes! Wasn't comfortable and had to hand over damp notes to everyone! I actually felt really safe in Rio - I might even dare to say that I think London is more dodgy. Like any major city you just have to have your wits about you, be aware of your surroundings and not do anything stupid. And, be willing to give everything up if you are mugged.

I was actually a bit disappointed with Rio at first as the carnival was not what I expected. I thought there would be constant music and singing in the streets with spontaneous dancing. We didn't really see any of that. We went to some of the bloc parties and bandas (street parties) but they seemed to me to be just a load of people milling around and drinking (and weeing in the street!). On the weeing and rubbish topic, I will say that I was amazed and very impressed at how quickly they clean the city up. Following every parade of people were garbage trucks and men collecting all of the empty bottles and cans. They are separated into bags and recycled. They are also constantly sweeping and washing the streets.

My best experience of the music etc was the day of the gay ball when a huge parade came past our hotel. There was some great singing and dancing and everyone was chasing the float doing a funny dance - a bit of a cross of Madness and some kind of funky samba. They all knew the words; it was fabulous!

The day after we arrived was free so I took Bev and Debs on the walking tour recommended by the LP. We braved the metro (perfectly clean and safe) to get to our starting point. I can imagine some of the buildings we saw would be beautiful if they weren't covered in carnival stuff and the view wasn't interrupted by huge stages! The cathedral was interesting - very ugly from the outside, a bit like an old fashioned sugar shaker but pretty impressive from the inside with huge long stained glass windows. Debs left us to meet a friend so I took Bev up to Santa Teresa via the tram. There were people hanging off the outside of the tram and we had to go up a huge hill. I swear that if they hadn't been watching where we were going, some of them would have got their heads smacked off as we were passing lampposts and buildings with only about a foot to spare on the sides. Very scary! We were on our way back to the hotel when we spotted Martin (you remember him, we met on that long boat journey down the Madeira River) so we dropped Bev off and downed about 8 beers in a short period of time (during which I was sweating so much I got a serviette stuck to my forehead and didn't realise!). We all then went to a huge street party in Lapa where Esteban bit me (Esteban - look at some of my recent photos and you'll see the bruise damage you caused me!) and Martin and I got asked if we were Frederic's parents. I've never been so insulted in my life - do I honestly look old enough to be the mother of a 19 year old? Apart from the fact that Martin would have been 9 when I gave birth! Harrumph! Insulted and bored, I decided to go home alone (against all advice but nobody else was ready so what's a girl to do eh?). Said a very teary goodbye to Esteban who has been my little brother throughout this trip and walked all through the party crowds and eventually found a taxi and honestly felt so safe. Have decided there's a lot of scare mongering goes on in Rio - fair enough if you come from a village out in the sticks where you're used to leaving your front door unlocked but for those of us who've lived in big cities like London, it's really no different (well, except for the guns!).

On Saturday we went to Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer. Fairly impressive but nothing overly special. They reckon the view of Rio is the best city view in the world but I have to say I still maintain that HK wins every time. Took some silly photos and then we headed to Maracana Stadium to see the semi final of the Rio football league - Vasco vs Fluminense. The metro was totally packed and really quite scary as everyone was pushing, shoving and bashing the train while chanting footie songs. Not being a footie fan, I didn't enjoy the game but it was interesting to be in Brazil's hallowed ground and watch the fans going crazy (including setting off fireworks in the stand - mad, I tell you!)

On Sunday morning I took off for a walk on my own and got completely lost. None of the streets were on my map. I was then rescued by Phil (You remember him too? We left him behind the bus in NZ and he was my fellow roadtripper!!). He was in Rio with his girlfriend Lorna. Met them for lunch which was great. In the evening we went to the sambodrome to watch the parades (that's the stuff you see on the TV which all of the floats, amazing costumes and dancing). It's a fabulous venue but we had pretty crappy seats set back off the road and at the very end by which time the performers are knackered! There were 7 schools performing and each one takes around 1 hour to get from one end of the sambodrome to the other. The parade started at around 8.30pm and was due to finish at around 7am. Madness! There was a great atmosphere and I can imagine it's really amazing if you have good seats and can see the stuff they show on TV. Mind you, those seats cost around GBP400 or more! Because we were at the end, we watched all of the performers stripping off their costumes, which some of our tour leaders promptly stole and paraded in our section of the stand, hence the pic of me in the princess hat (very apt)! I left at around 3am. It had all become a bit 'samey' for me and the music was the same throughout each school parade. An hour of exactly the same beat droning on can get to you after a while! Was great to be a part of though.

On Monday I decided to try my hand at hang gliding. What a great experience. We drove 510 metres up to Pedro Bonito rock and, once harnessed up, you basically have to run off the end of a ramp. The faster you run, the better. It was the weirdest feeling just running til you can't feel the ground anymore. The view was phenomenal and we could see Christ and Sugarloaf mountain in the distance and the favela and beach in the foreground. Everytime we caught the wind we got lifted up higher and we were way higher than the platform. We were in the air around 15 minutes I think and then had a very smooth landing. I'll try and upload the video. I don't suggest you watch the whole thing as it's a bit boring but definitely watch the take-off and landing and you'll get a feel for what it's like.

On Tuesday we went up Sugar Loaf Mountain which was chaotic and very commercialised but a good view. Today was the hottest it had been. The forecast had said it would probably hit the low 40s but would feel like 46. 46? Felt like 146!

Tonight was the night we had all been waiting for - the gay ball. All the boys dressed up as women (or stereotypical gay men) and looked hilarious! The girls all dressed up but most of us just wore a mask and feather boa. It didn't start til midnight so we made our way to the venue where there were barriers for around 50m ahead of the entrance. It was like a film premiere. Everyone had to parade down the red carpet to the cheers, whistles and paparazzi style photos to get in. Some of the people were fantastic - in full garb and make up and were loving the attention - stopping to pose all the way down and chatting to their fans. They would then stop at the bottom for the TV cameras and, if they were lucky, be interviewed on the live show. The photos really don't do any of it justice. We got inside just as they started playing YMCA (it can't get any better than that?!) and it was jam packed and like a furnace! Next thing, Lorna appeared in front of me (goodness knows how she found me or how she recognised me in amongst all those people as she'd only met me 2 days earlier!). She went off to get Phil and I laughed so much. He'd shaved his beard into a Village People style tache and was only otherwise wearing Speedos and a hat. Very funny. We also bumped into David and Frederic who made a lovely couple of women!! A few of us made it til around 4am but were conscious we had to be up for a tour the next day so left the others partying til about 6am. A great experience!

For our last day in Rio, I organised a private tour for 4 of us to the favela. I remember learning about favelas at school in Geography (with Mr Pallister for those of you reading this!!) and that knowledge, combined with everything I've read in the guide books made me think it was basically a slum made of corrugated iron shacks and full of dirty/smelly people. I also thought it was the most dangerous place in Rio - full of violent crime and somewhere you just don't venture. Really not so and my experience made me realise how much the media fills our heads with myths. I had found several tour companies but most of them drive into the favela with a jeep (a bit like a safari) and you sit, protected and in fear, while staring at everyone in the faveka as though you are in a zoo. I didn't like the sound of that so discovered a guy called Zezinho, who lives in the favela and does small-group private experiences. We signed up for 3 hours (which ended up being 5) and it was fantastic. We met him on Copacabana beach and he was a 47 year old guy, covered in tattoos of the favela. He had spent 10 years in the S as a Brazilian funk DJ and still did some mixing in his spare time. He offered to take Jade to a funk party in the favela which I think would have been great.

Anyway, we went to the Rochinho Favela which is the biggest favela in Brazil with around 300,000 people living there. It's built on a hill with stunning views, which is ironic given that it is potentially prime real estate yet the poorest area in Rio. It's sandwiched between the 2 richest areas in Rio which are much lower down the hill. Contrary to common belief, there is legal electricity, water and a postal service in the favela although the rates are typically much lower to match the wages of the people. There are also plenty of shops and 3 banks although the healthcare and sanitation is poor (we saw an open sewer while we were there). Most of the people work outside of the favela as restaurant staff, hotel workers, cab drivers etc so really not scary at all! The people to be wary of are the drug barons, although even they only really go after their own kind. They are a little bit like a mafia so are controlling the underworld and protecting their own community. Collectively, they earn around US$15 million per month. They pay (bribe) the police US$4,000 per day to stay away as they don't want them there causing trouble. When the police enter, they normally do so at about 5am so that they can have the place cleaned up before any tourists arrive (there are about 200 tourists a day). The people in the favela have a warning system to let everyone know in the community that they should be on alert and stay near their homes. Kids set off 7/8 bangs of a firework at the bottom of the hill to let people know that the police are near the entrance. If they come in, the fireworks travel up the hill. In the past (before mobile phones), the drug barns used to use kids to notify people that shipments had arrived - green kites for marijuana and white flags for coke.

Anyway, back to Zezinho. So he took us on a van-type bus which we found out were all owned by the drug barons and are actually the safest places to travel. You're told never to take a bus after dark in Rio because of the shootings and robberies but they would never touch their own people so nothing ever happens on the vans. We got out outside the favela to look at a samba school. 80% of carnival performers come from the favelas. We then each got on the back of a motorbike and screamed our way to the top of the mountain (no helmets of course!) through the winding streets to the most amazing view across Rio. We then set off to walk down the winding streets and tiny alleyways through the favela. I felt incredibly safe and didn't even hold onto my bag. People were incredibly friendly and welcoming and they all knew Zezinho. He told us we could take photos anywhere unless we say the drug barons or, as he called them, the "you know whos" as they would probably take our cameras from us. Hmmm, won't be breaking that law then as didn't really fancy coming face to face with the barrel of a gun! We saw one guy with a gun scuttling down an alleyway but otherwise it was just like any normal city suburb but a bit more higgledy piggledy. Went to Zezinho's house and climbed out of his kitchen window where he had the most amazing view. He lives halfway down the hill so you get a real perspective o the size and texture of the place. From the bottom of the hill it looks like a wall of little rickety houses but from inside you can really see the structure.He then burned some funk CDs for the other girls and we set off to find some lunch. We went to a kilo restaurant where the food was the freshest I'd seen in one of those places. This is another great Brazilian invention where you pile your plate up with meat, fish, pasta veggies etc and then pay by the kg. It usually costs around GBP4-5 depending on how much of a piggy you feel! They also do it with fresh fruit. I said I wanted to see more you know whos with some big guns so after lunch we went to a more dodgy part of town where we saw a bunch of guys blatantly selling drugs - like a market! They had little green packets laid out full of weed and white packets of coke - all lined up on a table, next to a bag full of money. Some of the guys had guns down their pants! Apparently most of the drugs are sold to dealers from the city who buy it in the favela and then sell it for 5x the price on the streets. All in all a great experience and I'm really glad I ignored the warnings and listened to my instinct. I honestly felt safer in the favela than anywhere else in Rio and I would have been happy to go back in on my own to mooch around (which, by the way, Zezinho said was perfectly ok to do).

We headed back into town (by drug-baron van of course!) and I met up with Phil for a farewell drink. That's the problem with this travelling lark - you seem to spend a lot of time saying goodbye.

And that was Rio....phew!!