Sunday morning and our last day. We took a taxi to the hippie market in Ipanema. There were no hippies there but there were a lot of interesting handicrafts stalls as well as all the mass-manufactured tourist rubbish. We wandered around and bought a couple of things and ate some very good food from a stall run by ladies from Bahía. We wandered around the town for a while but by this time my batteries were run down. Three days of walking, eating and drinking too much with not enough sleep had caught up with me. We returned to the apartment and spent the rest of the day quietly.

At 22.30 Rafael took us to the bus station and the 23.10 bus departed on time. This time it was a very luxurious affair with fully reclining seats. We managed to sleep reasonably well and arrived at 06.30 Monday morning just in time for Flavia to start work at 07.00 and for me to complete the missing few hours sleep. It is tough not having to go to work but I have learned not to be jealous as Flavia leaves for work every morning at dawn.

When I arrived in Rio I was expecting not to like it; there had been too many tales of crime and violence and i was expecting to spend the whole time looking over my shoulder. Brazilians seem to enjoy scaring the wits out of foreigners with bloodthirsty tales of gruesome crimes committed in Rio.  Even Flavia was telling me about a visit a few years ago when two favelas were having a disagreement. All night they could hear the sound of guns firing and see tracer bullets going in both directions. Apparently it is not unknown for bullets to enter  apartments nearby.

It is hard to tell where the truth lies. I suspect that the crime rate outside of the favelas has dropped considerably over the years. Probably a lot of the violent crime, as in England, is by young black men against other young black men and often drugs and gang related. All I can say is that it felt no more dangerous than any other large city I have been in. Of course we stuck to the most important areas, were not out in the middle of the night and avoided deserted places.

So my verdict on Rio: it is fantastic, a city not to be missed, it has more natural beauty than any other city I ever ever seen – by a long margin. It has rich and vibrant cultural life too. It would be very easy to spend a week there and that is without going to the beach.  The beaches are wonderful, as good as anywhere, but I would not go there from Europe or the USA just for a beach holiday. There are plenty of nearer places which are much easier to get to. So my advice is go there for two weeks and alternate lazy days on the beaches with touring the city. It is very expensive by Brazilian standards (all large cities are more expensive than the smaller towns) but most Europeans will find the prices fairly reasonable.

It is with eager anticipation that I look forward to my next visit. (Rafael, that is a hint!)

Having gone 400km south-west our next trip is 450 km due west to Belo Horizonte the State Capital of Minas Gerais , the third biggest metropolitan area city in Brazil (5m).  We are going to spend a week driving around the first area in Brazil colonised due to its abundance of gold, diamonds and other riches. “Minas Gerais” means “General Mines” in Portuguese.  There are a lot of old towns with a well developed cultural tourism industry.

We may not have much access to the internet but will try to add a couple of reports while on the road.