Well I am here, I made it!! After an awful check in (nearly missed the flight!) and a crazy cab ride (people here drive like nutters) I am now in Rio de Janeiro and finally on my last day here the sun has come out!! The weather was very English when I first arrived. Really enjoying Rio, its a very lively city and not as scary as some people and guide books have made it out to be. Rio de Janeiro is split in to 3 parts, Zona Norte where the favelas (slums) are, the city centre which is the financial district and Zona Sul which is home to the famous beaches.

I am staying in Copacabana which looks similar to New York and is certainly as fun but with an amazing beach and surrounded by moutains. On my first day here I managed to get hopelessly lost walking round the streets but eventually found my way back to the hostel. The hostel I am staying in helped me organise some trips for my first couple of days here, my first one was to go and see two favelas - Rochinha and Vila Canoas.

Rio is split dramatically between the rich and the poor, the favelas are mainly in the north and they seem to grow up the mountains. They are controlled by the drug lords and the city and the government have little to do with them. The houses there are like patchwork quilts, made out of whatever people can find and built one on top of the other. No planning permission is needed in the favelas so every available space is taken and built on. The contrast between the rich and the poor can be seen even more clearly when you drive up to the favelas and right next to them you have big expensive houses with big iron gates and electric fences right next door to where the slums start.

Due to bad publicity people from the richer parts of Rio do not go in to the favelas and they are mostly ignored by the city. The tour guide, a lady named Christina explained to us that this was a very naive view and you were probably safer from muggings in the favelas than you were in the city. Mainly because the drug lords do not accept this sort of activity as they do not want any more police attention that what they already get! The only thing we had to be particularly careful of was not getting any people in photos. But it all makes sense and after meeting some of the people there they deserve more attention and help than they currently get. There is a greater sense of community in the favelas than in the city too, everyone looks out for each other in this part of Rio.

We went to the market in Rochinha where lots of interesting foods were being sold and we also got an opportunity to visit a small community school in Vila Canoas set up by an Italian family, it was a sunday so no children but we got the chance to buy some of the things the kids had made. Christina said a lot of the children in favelas where very talented artistically but rarely got a chance to show it off, and of course they are very good at football (a lot of the famous Brazilian football players we all know came from the favelas).

After we left here we took a drive down in to Zona Sul and we got to see Ipanema and Leblon. Ipanema definately looks like the trendiest place in Rio with some great shopping!

Yesterday I did more of the tourist thing and I went to see the Sugar Loaf and Corcovado. The Sugar Loaf is a mountain which rises where Guanabara Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, it is named the Sugar Loaf as it looks like the the mould used during the refining of sugarcane. You have to take a cable car up to the top which is not good if heights make you nervous as it wobbles when you step on and off of it. Its also glass so you can see how far you have to fall! Unfortunately the weather was not great so although the views were lovely you could not see far.

For lunch the tour group (with me as the only English speaking person) went to have a traditional Brazilian barbeque. This was not like a barbeque in England, it was more like a giant buffet and it was gorgeous! Thankfully I stopped being a veggie... what was I thinking??? After we had eaten far too much we went to Corcovado (meaning Hunchback) and this was truly spectacular. The views here are breathtaking and the statue of Jesus Christ is amazing. We got there in time for sunset which was beautiful.

I leave Rio tomorrow but would definately like to come back, maybe in the Summer and maybe with a few more Portuguese phrases under my belt!