I saw a monkey!!

And here it is:

A monkey on a tree that looks like Italy's Prime Minister (the monkey, not the tree)

I know, it looks like a cat on a tree, but trust me:

1. it looked a hell of a lot like Romano Prodi

2. it was also trying to throw feces at an italian whilst running away,

Hence it was either an Italian politician or a monkey, and since it was about 40cm tall and we're not in Italy, I opted for the second.

Not that much to write actually, we spent most of the day driving around the mountains around Rio, its simply unbelievable, check out the photos, although I can assure you that they just can't render justice to the real sight.

Smidgens of Rio

The city itself is a work of art placed on nature's most incredible canvas.

I'll stop there because I promised Gaston that this blog wouldn't be a hippy/poetic one like Natxo's and I'd try to keep it real.

Unfortunately you're always aware that this isn't Europe and you just have to be alert. It just seems like paradise does not exists, no matter how beautiful the people, food, city and weather are there is something that taints the perfection, the crime and the poverty.

Its quite ironic, if you're in Ireland everything costs way too much and you freeze you're nuts off, if you're in italy life is affordable and good but the people just complain too much, here people are friendly everything seems to be idillic until someone pulls a gun at you at a traffic light.

They say that the city really needs the Christ Redeemer looking over it, and he will provide protection.

I say, all you really need is a bit of luck, cop-on (basically don't wear gold, watches, use mobile phones in certain areas, etc) and someone who knows the places where you can and must not go.

In other words you need either a Jesus or an Achille, my butt should be pretty safe, 'cos I've got both:

The Achille & The Jesus

We drive through the city, hit Copacabana and after a quick warning from my mentor, the AC goes on and the windows go up.

Shortly after that we arrive at Ipanema, another planet apparently, down come the windows and off goes the AC, which donates enough new hp to the methane pickup to easily climb over the mountains and reach the 60 km of beach which streach out of the city.

An there we sat, looking out over the ocean, sipping coconut milk (genetically engineered to be more refreshing than usual) and wondering why would anyone not want to live here...

My new hobby: doing fuck all

Finally, still wondering why places like Aberdeen even exist, we head back to the city to a small town called Urca.

Its like a corner of paradise, built on a small island in the middle of the city, it is comprised of beautiful houses but, because there is only a bridge to access the island, it is crime-free.

See, here in Rio people don't burgle your house, they assault you.

A certain number of guys break a window, knock down a wall or pretend to be techs or cops.

They come into your house with guns, lock you up in your toiler (if you're lucky), and then proceed to take everything you own, perhaps even you if they think you're worth some cash.

But Urca is different, the bottle neck of the island access would allow the cops to intercept any assault as it were leaving. And lets put it this way... assaulters here aren't arrested...

So there you have it, perhaps perfection does exist, it just comes in small portions :)

Urca & the city

Finally we headed home, relaxed after a devastatingly tiring day and headed out to Rio's most antique churrascaria where we ate steaks good and large enough to convert a vegan.

And that's it really, my tiny post with a couple of photos and not much to say has become a poem.

Don't get used to it tho, here in Rio I've got internet daily but I'm off to reach the carovan of love on the 29th in Belize City (http://www.dondelloranlosvalientes.blogspot.com/), so from then on its only sporadic internet cafes, ciao!