We were at the Copa, Copacabana.... try going around Rio without singing this 24/7... impossible. Thanks Barry Manilow. But, to be honest the Copacabana beach deserves to have an irritatingly catchy song about it - it's amazing!! It's quite bizarre having such clear amazing beaches attached to such a big city, but this is something we could get used to (Ipanema in particular). Other sites or course included standing on the top of the hill with Jesus; spectacular. And we thought we were so Brazilian that we attended a favela party. What silly silly gringos we are. We were approached on Sunday night and told that there was a secret party happening in the favela out of town.. shhh don't tell anyone. So we pay through the nose to go to the "Don's house" 2hrs away, but just before we get there we stop to get our tickets. And there arrives six other buses full of suckers going to the "secret party". Needless to say, it was not really a favela, it was a warehouse (although it was the warehouse where they filmed City of God.. one small claim to genuinity), and we were quickly ushered to the gringo platform in order to be separated from actual Brazilians. The rest of the tourists amused themselves by snogging each others faces off, but since we are an old married couple we just got drunk instead, and laid bets as to who would hook up next. How very ethnic of us.
