Hello, I arrived in Rio yesterday morning after an extremely long flight from LA via Miami. The very friendly Brazilian older man sitting next to me offered to take me to my hotel, which was very nice of him. We left the airport and because the highway leading to the centre looked worse than the worst traffic jams on the LA freeway he decided to drive through the northern part of the city and make a circle. Rio is divided into north and south and the northern part of the city is basically a huge shantytown (favela, as they call it). It was the less scenic but more interesting way to get to Copacabana, I would probably not have set foot in that area otherwise. My new friend´s driving style - which I found out later is the driving style of pretty much everyone in Rio - consists in pushing the gas pedal as much as it is physically possible interrupted by violent stops resulting from a sudden push on the break. This seems especially dangerous in areas where everyone, including kids and pregnant women, run across 60 m wide highways as a matter of course.

After making it into the southern bit of the city, Rio turns into a beach. Beautiful and less beautiful young men and women hang out on the some 40km stretch of sandy beaches. The men wear speedos, but I am told that it doesn´t mean that they are gay. And those sixpacks...mmm. I don´t understand how anyone can ever do any work in a city like this. Despite the intense tiredness I felt after the sleepless flight, I decided to start the tourist thing. I went up to watch the sunset from the Sugarloaf (Pao de Acucar), a mountain from which the view of the city is just stunning. From the ground I wasn´t that impressed with Copacabana, the famous beach where I am staying but from up there that, and everything else looked amazing. I think I have been convinced that Rio is the most beautiful city in the world. Even better than Cape Town from the Table mountain I dare say.

After surviving the bus ride back to the hotel (yes, bus drivers also seem to be on crack) I went out to dinner with my new friend. He took me to a Brazilianr steak house, I tought about Aron all the time while I was there and was eating those steaks for him too. It was simply the best food: best steaks, best sushi, best seafood, best (Argentinian) wine, etc. Much better than Rodizio Rico in London - perhaps unsurprisingly. Afterwards I got to experience some of Rio´s nightlife in a very curious looking place: a club converted from an antique shop. Apparently, the antiques were not selling and the owner decided that Brazilians may not like antiques but they sure love to dance so tuned his business into something more lucrative and fun. He left all the "antiques" as the decor though: old and beautiful tables, cupboards, etc. similar to those my grandmother used to have, together with crappy repros and carnival costumes, and much more. The place was unbelievably cool, cocktails were good and what I loved most about it is that here it seems that older people are perfectly comfortable going to the same clubs as younger ones and they all just hang out dancing and drinking way into the night.

Now I am off to the beach. It´s the fall already but still 33C and blazing sunshine. Later.