Slightly more in depth Rio

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Rio has been an awesome place to spend time, and you could easily spend a lot longer there (Mehalah spent 2 months and needs more time). There is a massive variety of things to do and the people are very friendly.

It is hard to grasp quite how big rio is, it follows the coast for miles and miles, sorounded by by mountains and lush forests. This means that pretty much where ever you are you are not far from an amazing sandy beach, backed by cycle paths and beach sellers. These beaches are pretty amazing especialy considering the fact that you are in a city the size of london. True to its reputation rio is full of fantastically beautifull people - wearing very little. Sadly we were not able to fully enjoy these beaches as it rained everyday other than the first day that i spent in Rio, so i am not yet as tanned as i was hoping. Rio has plenty more to offer than amazing long sandy beaches.

Heading downtown and up a steep hill (the colourfull steps in the photos) takes you to a district called santa terasa. A cool little area overlooking Rio full of narrow cobbled winding streets out of a different age. The architecture was awesome in this area full of colonial building in various states. In order to get both up and down from this district it is possible to take a tram. We didnt on the way up but on the way down decided to give it a go. The trams that can be seen in the photos in my last entry get very full and it is tradition that if you travel on the outside just handing on and treading opn the foot boards you travel for free. This was good fun, although as hala will tell you one does need to watch out for telegraph posts.

The poor weather meant we saw a lot more of historic Rio than we otherwise might have, other walks we went opn took as to the market areas and a fevala. The favela we went to as explained in the photos in my previous entry was the biggest in Rio and pretty wierd. Locals wonder why we would want to go into a favela as they are poor, smelly and full of drug dealers, but you cant see Rio properly without going. We used a guide that took about 12 of us Gringos round. Starting at the base of the favela ( Favelas are always built on hills due to the fact that these are the opnly places that havent been built on) we took motobike taxis to the top then walked down through the tiny streets visiting houses and a nursury opn the way down. The poeple were very friendly and didnt mind at all that we were there, although you were constantly reminded of the drug dealer back ground on the place with AK47´s drawn on many walls, and the occasional lookout armed with a walkie talkie and a firework to set of if the police enter the place.

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