Rio Baby!!! That's right, Rio!!!!

Well, Rio isn't overestimated!
This city absolutely rocks. The sun shines, the beaches are clean and plentiful, the mountains and hills are visible form everywhere, the Cariocas (people of Rio) patient and friendly to gringos, and they speak a lot more English than people from Sau Paulo...

Easy examples:

• I was on a bus the other day... and it stopped for a couple of mins so the driver and conductor could get ice cream.
  
• There's a guy who sells pineapples on Ipanema beach, who has half a pineapple on his head, and tries to creep up on gringos and scream 'Abacaxi!!!!!´ (pineapple) to scare the crap out of them.
  

I dont know how much of that kind of thing is Brazil in general, but Im sure that living in a chill, pretty, sunny city by the sea helps anyones temperament.

Rio is full of landmarks and things to do...

• Ive taken a cable car to sugar loaf moluntain... in the mist... kind of creepy, like being on a cable car STRAIGHT TO HELL!!!!



• I went to see the Christ statue too, which has great views, and everyone posing for a pic with their arms outstretched, it must be one of the most cliched photos ever.
  
• I went to a modern art gallery, with loads of funky stuff you could really interact with, touch, smell, taste, wear... made the Tate modern look stuffy in comparison.


• I took a creaking, antique tram, which goes over a narrow aquaduct, then onto tiny old cobblestone streets... its the kind of death trap that you could never have in the UK.... the RMT would crap themselves at the sight of it.



• Favela tours, where you wonder around the Favelas with a guide (think city of God, but not so hard core).

I have had a fair amount of beach time, however. Copacobana... Ipanema.... every beach here has a song about it, that you can´t get out of your head, like a sound track for each beach.
There´s patterns in the paving stones on the sea front promenades, so you can literally tell where you are just by looking at the ground. It seems to rub off too, a lot of people wear black and white, consciously or subconciously matching themselves to the streets of the city.

Food is great, my favourite being kilograma restaurants, where you get your plate weighed and pay by the gram. Meat is amazing and dead cheap, apart from bacon (I cant figure out how they havent clocked how amazing bacon is).

The hostels are good, with hot tubs and bars... no wonder Ive been here so long!

Its killing my bank balance tho, I need to leave.... but theres always the lure of one more day, especially when the next step of my journey, to Bolivia, is like 40 hrs travel.

Another day on the beach for me then...

Salvador

Salvador, Brazil

Ahh, finally, something like the postcard Brazil.
Im rolling with two Belgians, they give me joke with their accents (`Germansh, eh? Fucking Bashtards!`).

The streets of Salvador are cobblestoned, and the buildings old and in pastel colours (apparently before street numbers, the colour of your hose was the way to address the mail to you).
We arrived on a Tuesday, a big party night here, and this old towen gives great acoustics for the drums and Frohha (?) rhythms echoing from every square.

Theres a lot of touts and salesmen, but mostly good natured: When trying to get rid of one of them, he said `maybe tomorrow?` Yeah, maybe tomorrow. ´Maybe never!!!!´ he said, then laughed as we walked away.
The most obscure thing someone tried to sell was a kind of marionette set piece, two caricature figures in black and white like something from a nightmare before Xmas, one bent over and the other with a big pole, and when you jiggle the wires the pole smacks against the arse of the bent over one over and over... puppet soddomy! Tim Burton would be loving this!

In the main square there's live music, people who want to sell you things, including themselves.
One short prossie we saw grinding someone earlier waltzes over, and asks for a little bit of one of the belgian guys drinks (pocito?)... she then snatches his caiprinhia, and tries to down the whole thing, but almost chokes, and starts coughing andd spluttering. Im sure theres a lesson to be learned there. She recovers quickly tho, and is onto me for my drink. I think Im being dead clever by holding it too high for her to reach: she then pinches my nipples hard. Im in a tug of war over a can of beer. I win!!!!! I feel like such a man.

She goes to the other Belgian, and starts trying to seduce him: she moans in cliched porno ways, then finds herself so funny she cant stop laughing at herself, then moans again, then cracks up, etc.
Normally I have no time for hasslers, especially prostitutes that arent even pretty (Im in Brazil, WTF???) but she gave me jokes, maybe she was on some decent drugs, but she had a fun energy about her, and I didnt mind her craziness.

When the live music started to wind down, we made ourt down hill toward the hostel.
Everyone says this town is kinda dangerous, the north east of Brazil has massive unemployment, and theres loads of tourists in Salvador, ripe for the taking.
Theres a big sign at the hostel saying to be very careful after midnight, especially when its rainging, cos the police go indoors and youre a walking target. You cna kind of feel it in the air too, the midnight thing is so true that its like some kind of fucked up CInderella story, after 12 the magical town turns into muggers alley.

Despite all this, one of the Beligian guys tries to buy some weed from a sketchy random.
After he tries to sell us tobacco, and the strets feel empty and people are eying us up as ambulatory wallets, we leave.

Well there you go. Music, beauty, party atmosphere, crazy prostitues, a mild sense of danger... that's what you expect from Brazil, no?