Rio - crazy views and favelas

We spent a week in Rio to get a feel for life as a ´carioca´. According to the locals the city has been cleaned up for the world cup and olympics, there were cops everywhere! Once the weather improved we made a bee-line to Christ the Redeemer statue with some friendly Columbian guys from the hostel and some crazy Argentinians who we met on the bus. Check out the cool view of the city in the photos below.




Whilst in Rio we met up with Maka and Rose - friends from Melbourne. Lucky for us, Rose being Brazilian could speak Portuguese and after chatting with the police at the bottom of the favela in Copacabana we took a stroll up the steep hills for a look around. Along the way Rose got chatting to a lady who then volunteered to show us around. Our own private favela tour! The Police have taken over many of the favelas in the past year or so, taking the guns from the drug dealers and bringing peace to the communities. Tom and Maka also brought a bit of colour to the streets and made friends with some local kids - check out the photos below.





Our last 2 days in Rio were spent staying in a favela hostel. This favela had the most awesome view over the city - so we spent a fair amount of time lying in a hammock taking it in and chatting with the locals kids.