Hello from Rio de Janeiro

Flight was fine, although they messed my seat up and instead of a window seat I got an aisle. Nevermind eh?

I got driven in from the airport and I got the lowdown on the city. There are the shanty towns made famous by films such as Cicade de Deus (City of God), for which there are specially organised tours (I'm going to give that a miss as I wouldn't want to catch a stray bullet), there's the downtown area where I'm going tonight to a samba club, and there are the beaches...

Today is a bit overcast but when we came in the beaches still looked beautiful. Miles of white sand, with volleyball and football areas marked out and so on.

I've sorted myself out a trip to the beachfront barbecue restaurant tonight and then on to a samba club downtown which should be interesting!

Tomorrow I go on a private trip around the Corcovada (the massive statue of Christ up on a hill overlooking Rio - it's the iconic image you see whenever there's an aerial shot of Rio) and the Sugar Loaf mountain. Friday I've got a free day and hopefully will be spending that on the beach!

I'll sort out some photos tomorrow or something.

K