Rio

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Hello from Rio, Carnival time. Fabulous atmosphere. Very hot, busy and great fun. Every imaginable outfit on display. It's a vibrant city of Samba with music on every corner. There is a darker side to the city but about 340 passengers visited the Carnival and we have heard no reports of any security or safety issues.we are told not to wear any visible jewellery and carry money in close body pouches. We hear a lot about the flavela which certainly sprawl around the edge of the new modern buildings but we did see a protest sculpture to save a flavela I think the gist of the Portuguese notes were that if they lost their homes they wouldn't be sure to get new ones. They are gearing up for Olympics but still have a lot to do including building a tramway from the port. There were 11 cruise ships here for Carnival and only one out of 10 WiFi accessed points working intermittently so they need to sort that out. But it's a great place to visit. Very vibrant. Now we are off to Uruguay.

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