Victoria and Justin: We´re going to Rio.....de Janiero

We finally arrived in Rio de Janiero on a Friday after our 2 day trek from Bolivia to Brasil, which had turned into a 'planes, trains and automobiles' mission (well, it was a bus not a train but pretty tough going). And expectations were running high. Rio would be our first taste of 'quasi' western civilisation in 3 months and we had some international visitors arriving, Hannah (my sister from New York) and Alicia (our mate from London). So, Victoria and I set about finding some suitable accomodation for these working girls taking a break from the hustle and bustle. We found a two bedroom apartment in Ipanema, one block from the beach, and right in the middle of the action.

And then there was three - Hannah arrived around midday on Saturday, we moved in the apartment, grabbed some lunch and headed straight for the beach. I'd say we had a 'semi-relaxing' day at the beach, as we were joined by a couple of thousand Brasilians and suffered the constant hounding of various 'beach sellers' offering everything from beers, ice tea, prawns on a stick, jewellery, rugs to cooked cheese (yes, cheese, and it was awesome). That night we decided to have a relatively quite night as Han had just arrived. We got home around 3am (opps), after plenty of drinks, a vigorous search for the local kebab shop and Victoria shouting 'hola' to all the street cleaners, classic stuff.

After a few days at the beach we decided it was time for some cultural activities, and the forecast was for rain from Tuesday to Thursday. We took a taxi into the centro, had a look around downtown and checked out the old neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, with it's cobled street and old tramway, it was all interesting stuff. That night we had dinner at the local churrascaria (it's one of those famous 'all you can eat' barbeque restuarants in Rio). What a meal, we tore that place up, there was so much meat! About half way thru my meal I suffered from a mild case of 'meat sweats', it was just to much protein.

On the Wednesday it was more culture. We went on a 'favela tour', a guided walk thru one of the 'safer' favelas in Rio (a favela is a shanty town in Brasil). What an eye opening experience, with the majority of people living in some tough conditions. The worst we encountered was the occasional menacing looking teenager, interestingly, most people we encounter were reasonably cheerful, although we did take the 'gringo' route through the favela. Later that evening we had our first taste of Samba, attending a 'carnival' practice session for the Salgueiro suburb of Rio (winner of 2009 carnival), the hall had over 100 drummers and another 500 people singing and dancing, they rocked the place.

And then there was four - Alicia arrived on Thursday night, we had a couple of drinks to catch up but nothing crazy. We woke Friday morning to blue sky! It was time to hit the 'Corcovado', the massive Jesus statue sitting above Rio. However, by the time we reached the statue some light cloud had come in obsuring the statue and the view of Rio, slightly disappointing but that's travelling. So, to ease our woes we headed to the beach for the rest of the day, enjoying the sun, a few beers and the cooked cheese, awesome. On Friday night we had our last dinner with Hannah (departing Saturday) and our first with Alicia in a nice little restaurant in Ipanema. After dinner we jumped in a taxi to Lapa (home to samba clubs and discotheques), our first stop was the 'Rio Scenarium' a multi-level club, needless to say, it ended up being quite a large night.

We woke up on Saturday, hung...... We hit the beach for a few hours, then cleaned the apartment and it was time to depart. And that was Rio. Next stop Florianopolis.