rotten day in terms of weather so we had another chilled day pottering around the hostel. It was good to have a bit of time on our hands, it enabled us to catch up with photos and diaries and also research what and where we were going to visit. Fausto had also invited us to go to a Samba club with him and his girlfriend that night so we didn’t want too much of a hectic day.

Fausto said he would meet us at the hostel around 10.30 pm and sure enough he turned up right on time. We headed down to the Samba club which was supposed to be one of the best in Rio, so we were very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately on the way we kind of got the impression that all was not well between Fausto and his girlfriend. Even though we couldn’t understand a word they were saying we knew that they were arguing pretty badly. Even so, Fausto parked up and we were all set to head into the club before

another bout of arguing broke out and Fausto said to us that he was really sorry but the Samba club wasn’t going to happen. He said for us to go in without him but to be honest, the club was in a very dodgy area and with us both standing out like sore thumbs we thought we’d give it a miss. It was also incredibly hectic outside of the club and it just didn’t feel right us going on our own, so we asked for a lift back with him. So that was that, we certainly heard Samba but didn’t quite make it into the club! We got back to the hostel and Ryan, an American lad who was doing voluntary work in Brasil and seemed to hang around the hostel most nights asked us if we fancied heading down into Lapa for a few drinks. So we did end up going out after all, even if it was just down the road! Lapa is the Samba capital of Brasil though so we did get to hear some wicked tunes. We also saw some fairly weird and wonderful sights but again we had that same old feeling that you didn’t really feel entirely safe. It’s