hey everybody! things are really looking up for me here! the monsoon which was drowning rio for a couple of days seems to have backed off and we had enough sunshine today to go up sugar loaf which was amazing. done a bit of shopping and a bit of sightseeing, met up with chris fordham, andrew chetwood and his gfriend and some other ppl so thats been very cool. hopefully we'l be sampling some rio nightlife tonight too worried relatives will be relieved i survived the favela tour- was way beyond my expectations and so much more civilised than id thought! couldnt go up into rocinha the biggest favela popln of iover 200000, because the silly police had gone in the night before looking to catch a drug lord and instead got styuck in a huge gun battles. we could see the hsots up the hill- crazy! so thankfully didnt go into the favela. but visited a different smaller drug free favela and the school which the tours fund. amazing and a definite must do for anyone visiting rio, saw the da vinci code last night. portuguese subtitles so mostly fine except kendricks latin classes didnt quite teach me enuff to understand the latin bits so maybe someone could fill me in! love to all. missing home but definitely enjoying the buzz of rio. shame the best bits are so dangerous and ppl keep getting mugged..... also a private joy- its only a week till im in china with chris jennifer if ur reading this i will try and sort out seeing u in bangkok. will u be there either end of july or end of august? i think ur gone end of august so i will try and arrange a stopover on my flight to penang from hong kong hope everyone is good and happy in life. emma good luck with ur trip u must be heading off soon! keep in touch lady or il fone u and shout at u!