As we reached a week in Rio, we began the day at our favourite juice bar with a brief stint at the beach. That afternoon we jumped on a bus and along with our guide head to "Rocinha", Brazil's largest favella. Upon arriving at the foot of the favella which covered an enormous area in the south of the city, we were placed in the charge of a moto-taxi driver who wisked us up to the top of the favella via it's main artery. I can genuinely say I was petrified, the guy I was with seemed to have decided he was to race every other gringo in our party up the hill regardless of oncoming traffic, hairpin bends andmy well being. I dismounted the bike after a hair raising ten minutes with white knuckles! From the 'wealthy' upper favella, we made our way through the narrow streets avoiding the juices of the favella which ran through the streets down into the poorer parts of the favella. Having studied favellas so much during my time at school, it was amazing to actually experience one for myself! It was fairly daunting how openly people were weilding handguns and our movements were being followed by rooftop lookouts on walkie-talkies. As we moved through the gangs territories, we were warned not to take photos due to drug dealers weirdly wanting to protect their anonimity. We ended up in a child's daycare facility which was funded by the majority of the money we paid for the tour, it made the tour feel a lot more worthwhile and less like daylight robbery!


Toward the bottom of the favella, the walls were peppered with bulletholes as a reminder of the gang wars which dominate life in these places. At the base of the favella, we saw the beginnings of a governement initiative to build a cable car to the top of the favella, all well and good despite the fact they ousted thousands of people from their homes to make way for construction! It was such an amazing experience and definitely changed my perception of life in a favella.


The next day was the beginning of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and our first rainy day in Rio. Due to staff incompetence we had to move from Ipanema back Copacabana but within the same chain. We watched Mexico vs South Africa and an uneventful day passed us by. The following day, we made our way to the 'FIFA Fan Fest', a huge screen set up right on the beach showing match after match after match. Today was England's turn to play the USA, upon arrival, we located some friends and set up camp. Five girls from Hong Kong, one guy from Surrey, fifteen boys from Essex and we were set - we were by far the loudest and largest contingent of English people there and the singing was non-stop! When England miraculously scored a plume of beer shot into the air and the floor became a sprawling mass of sandy Essex boys. The evening passed by in a bar called 'Mud Bugs' and I soon found myself in bed.

The following day was nothing short of farcical, due to some shortsighted design within the hostel, the water tank which supplied the toilets, showers and taps ran dry and being a Sunday there was nobody available to remedy the situation! As you can imagine, hostels don't smell fantastic at the best of times, add to this the smell of about sixty unwashed people and a whole days worth of toilet time from those sixty people and minus a flush...it was gross! Desperate for a shower all day, I finally managed a quick (and slightly electrifying shower) at 10P.M. The day was wasted due to a lack of cleanliness but the evening was the night of the 'Favella Funk', a tour organised to a favella complete with it's own nightclub! It was a random night with fireworks going off indoors and the locals performing what can only be described as their answer to the 'Macarena' for the duration of the night - regardless of the song. The whole evening was an experience from the dingy warehouse club to the almost rabid local men, I'm glad I did it but I won't be repeating such a thing. Back at the hostel we slunk to bed, dreading the prospect of an early morning...