ok, so now its time for a bit of Brazil. Only in Brazil for 2 weeks, and so we´ve spent a week in big ol´Rio to kick things off. Stayed in Santa Teresa which is the arty neighbourhood, and overlooks the centre, and is pretty well located, as you only have to go to the bottom of the hill to get buses to pretty much anywhere. After arriving we had a wander round Santa Teresa, then took the tram back, as it began to hoon it down (though this was the only rain we had ). The place we stayed had a nice deck area with a stereo, and we also had our own personal kitchen, so we headed to the supermarket and bought loads of fruit, veg, stuff to cook, and most importantly, a case of beer. Enough crap, so what did we do in Rio...

...well, we went to Ipanema and Leblon to walk on the beach and by the lake, we sunbathed on Copacabana beach, we took a ferry to a tiny island called Ilha de Paqueta for an afternoon, we explored the centre, we saw the famous tiled steps (where we got filmed!), we rode the yellow tram, we took a wrong bus and ended up in a well dodgy area (luckily the bus driver just put us on another to save our ass, probably quite literally), walked around Urca and went Sugarloaf mountain for the sunset. The last thing, Sugarloaf, while expensive was very cool. We heard the hype and the view was great even though it was a bit cloudy, and the sunset was cool, though not the best we´ve seen. The mountain is a a giant granite slab (there is loads of granite in Rio), and to get to the top you take two cable cars, and so get two viewpoints, with the second obviously being higher, and giving sweet views of the city, the christ, and the beaches and the bay. The picture that goes with the blog shows sugarloaf in the middle. After the sunset, all the city lights come on and this also makes for a really cool view.

So why then did we not go to the famous Christ de Redentor you may ask?! Well, two reasons, one its covered in scaffold so having a facelift, and two, the really bad rains of April, led to a few mudslips, and one of these blocked the road and train to the top. Other things to talk about, would be the favelas. They are everywhere, and one even holds like a million people. you can do tours into them too, but we decided against this, agreeing that it would be safer not to take the SLR there, and also that its sort of poverty tourism, so didnt really want to exploit the poor that are clearly being bent over enough as it is. Rio is meant to be rich, and while they´re hosting the 2014 world cup, and the 2016 olympics, nothing yet appears to have been done for either, and the problem of the favela as well as general safety must be adressed. At time we felt safe, but a good few times, you do not feel safe, though we were told which areas to avoid. The city is sweet though, and a great place to spend some time and enjoy the mountains, forests, and of course beaches.

Lastly, on the second to last night, Paul (the hostel owner) took me to a real authentic brasilian samba night. It was down by the docks where the slaves were first brought, and is still pretty underground and unknown to tourists. The samba guys just sit round and play Samba, and its really cool (they play slower samaba than that of carnival).

On now to Paraty, where hopefully we´ll get some good weather to enjoy the surroundings!

peace from Brasil