I am flying up to Salvador in the northeast of Brazil tomorrow. Not that I've had enough of Rio, I could easily spend much more time here. I was wondering about how people do work here...well, apparently they don't really. On my way up to Christ the Redeemer two days ago, I met a Brazilian woman who explained to me that she has been unemployed for 5 years and gets quite upset about how difficult it is to find a job but then goes to the beach and things don't seem as bad anymore. I also almost got redeemed on the way up thanks to a bunch of American Christians, traveling with a charitable organization that helps children by organizing American "adoptive parents" for them. We started chatting and then somehow I the conversation took an uncomfortable turn and I almost had to apologize for not believing in Jesus...On the upside, there is still hope apparently, even for me. The view from the hill with the famous statue was, again, amazing. The hill is now called Corcovado (Hunchback) but I found out that the Portuguese first called it "temptation", and the name was only changed later, which seems more appropriate.

On Saturday night I ditched my older friend and met up with a really nice couple that a friend of mine, Robin, from London put me in touch with: Andrea, a Brazilian woman and Tom, her English husband, ex-banker and ex-consultant, respectively. They traveled around the world for a year and have been in Rio for the past couple of months so they gave me really good tips on what to do and where to go. Another friend of Robin's also joined us for dinner, Barbara, a pretty amazing Italian woman who works with children in the largest favela in Rio (Rochina), lives there and is engaged to a Brazilian guy, Julio from the favela (he was also there). These past few weeks it has been especially dangerous to be in Rochina because the various drug gangs started a fight with each other so a thousand policemen were sent in to raid the place and they shot lots of people, many others fled from the area. (Julio worked as a bodyguard for one of the guys who was shot. Didn't ask more.) I had a great time with them, and they spoke Portuguese lots, which is good because when my ear gets used to the accent I might be able to understand more. My strategy is to speak Spanish and they usually understand what I want, but it is more difficult the other way round because of all those weird sounds that these people replaced the Spanish sounds with.

Sunday was a good day, too. Encouraged by the success of our bike ride over the Golden Gate bridge (and, as suggested by Andrea), I rented a bike and rode all the way down to Leblon (a nice neighborhood) by the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. I also rode a bit around the lake (yes, they even have a lake, which is in a very pretty setting) and then ran into hordes of young Brazilian men shouting and jumping up and down because their team won the Rio championship, which, it would seem is a big deal.

Now I am going to venture into the old, historic centre, which can be unsafe so I was told not to take my camera, or anything of value. Will probably write from Salvador.

(Oh, and I am getting a tan! I think I will be black by the time I finish the trips.)