Fri 25th Aug: We got up early and headed for the favela's which are a few miles outside Rio city. Favela's are basically shanty towns where lots of drug lords live and do business. the streets are very dangerous and the people are very poor. the gangs of the favela's allow the tours to happen as they receive half the money in return. When we got to there we were put on the back of a motorcycle and driven up the mountain to the top of the town. the gus driving the bikes were crazy - my guy was doing it one handed and tried to turn back and talk to me as he dodged cars, bikes and trucks. the bike then conked out halfway up the hill so another bikle came to collect me - i didnt know what was happening!!!! the bikje dave was on crashed into a van door - he was ok! the driver just picked the bike back up, oreder dave to get back on a drove even faster to the top - obviously a daily occurence!!!!! when we got to the top we began to walk the couple of miles back down. on the way we past kids as old as 3/4 seeling bracelets, pictures they made or even allowing us to take pictuires of them for 2 reais - the equivelent of 50p. when we were half way down we went to a childrens nursery. We got to meet all the kids and play with them for awhile - some of the kids are very unfortunate but they greeted us with a smile and a song. the favela's was a real eye opener and the photos we took do not do the place justice.......saying that have a look anyway. when we arrived back to the hostel we got changed dave and i along with a canadian and italian went to lapa (another area of Rio) to a samba club. it was good fun despite the fact that canadians and italians have no idea what a round is and when told are not able to keep up........!!!! we got home really late and crashed - the next day we had to travel again. This time out of Rio.