Rio!!!!!

Whats Rio like without carnival?... like any other big city, apart from, ooh, the people, the amazing landscape, the laidback brasilian attitude, the food, the beach, the wildlife, the buzz... ok, its not like any other city in the world! I had the chance to see part of it from above yesterday, from a small plane over the Tijuca rainforest ... couldnt see it close enough, so I jumped out. (Yes, i was attached to a parachute and a rather large cuddly experienced skydiver, whaddya think I am, stoopid?).
Rio is just immense... its going to take so long to see it all. So far I've seen Christ the Redeemer (Friday), visited Latin America's biggest Favela (slum) Rocinho (Saturday), sky dived over the beaches and been to watch Flamengo v Vitoria (rubbish match, 1-0 to Vitoria, and terrible play by Flamengo) at the world famous Maracana stadium(Sunday) (photos over on picasa) and sunned myself on Copacabana beach drinking coconut milk straight from the coconut (terrible way to spend a monday morning, eh?). And this weekend felt relaxing after all of the long truck days! lol. No time to top up the suntan here yet, but Lou and I head up the coast to Porto Seguro and Salvador on Thursday for 2 weeks so the beachtowels should be in heavy use!