Skol, Skol,Skol, Skol

It´s Ash wednesday, so Carnaval is over, Rio is getting back to normal. Although normal for Rio is people walking around in swimwear.

We´ve been busy since the Sambadrome. Yesterday I went on a tour of a favella, the biggest in south America, with around 150 000 people living there. Gav didn´t want to go as he thought it was voyeuristic, and it was a bit, but I remember learning about them in geography at school so I was really interested to see them.

It was actually really positive, to see that these temporary shanty towns I´d learned about 20 years ago, were now thriving permenant communities with all the normal services we enjoy. There were intertnet cafes, shops, schools, people have water and electricity and even cable TV, some of the houses had air conditioning. There is a darker side, outsiders can only go in with a guide and there are men on the streets carrying machine guns.

On a lighter note we went on a sunset cruise last night which was lovely, Gav went in for a dip, but I fogot to bring my toggs. Rio is even more stunning when you see it from the sea. In the sunset picture you can just about make out the statue of Christ the redeemer and sugar loaf.

The finale of the carnaval is the Gay ball, it´s televised accross Brazil, some of our group went but Gav and I just went to watch everyone go in. I´ve never seen so many men with boobs (Ed: look at the bottom pic of me for starters, sorry everyone I begged Bec to take it off). Brazil is the boob job capital of the world, I can see why.

Today we eventually made it to Copacabana beach. It was packed, but the bikinnis weren´t as revealing as the pictures you see of it at home.

Everying about Rio and Brazil has been brilliant, but for me (and I think I´m on my own here) one of the best things is that the national beer is Skol. I love it, I´ve always loved it, sadly you don´t see it much at home now, but it´s everywhere here. It´s the perfect beer, served ice cold, it´s quite wattery so it´s really refreshing and it doesn´t give you hangovers, well it doesn´t really get you drunk either. Bring back skol!