Okay Rio, Here we are! A very big and polluted city that i'm more than a little paranoid about walking around. Although to be fair we are getting used to it now. It is cool though surrounded by rainforwest and beaches but it does take ages to get around on the buses. We are staying in Santa Teressa which is where all the old colonials used to live overlooking the city before they all moved south to the areas of copacabana and ipanema. Now this area is trying to become a cultural area in its own right and it shows by the types of people stayin in our casa, theres one guy who apparently does all the mac support for Radiohead and countless arty types. We also got offered the opportunity to go help in a favella teaching english, might be a bit early to start work again though although certain people from work (Mr V) would relish the opportunity of heading into the real life mob zone!
Anyway went to ipanema where all the posh people live and it was just like LA with skaters and posh shops. Quite cool but havent moved down to stay there yet although it is an option.
Also went to the botanical gardens whcih were cool and got our first taste of the coastal rainforest that surrounds rio. Didnt see any monkeys though whcih i was v disapointed by.
Anyway we are planning on moving on but things keep happening, for instance tomorrow night theres a big festival to inaurgurate a year of cooperation between brasil and france wuith lots of fireworks.....now we were going to get a bus to curitiba tomorrow night but now i'm not sure again! I just want to get to a beach and crash out for a few weeks before doing anything too adventurous.
Oh one other thing of note was our trip up the hill yesterday. We have to get these kind of taxi things that all seem to be VW camper vans some of which are in need of serious repair. But last night we hopped in one and the driver couldnt start it, so after kicking the engine we finally set off roaring up the hill with exhaust fumes bellowing th4rough the windiows and the engine getting hotter and hotter behind my leg. Then the driver gently bumped into another car infornt of him! All very amusing although no one else on the thing found it v funny. he he.

Okay thats all folks..... enjoy the pics..