Her name is Rio ... (by Joe)

"Her name is Rio", sang Duran Duran - "... and she´s a filthy old slapper", was our initial impression to be honest.

We´d arrived at a dilapidated bus station, been driven under grey skies and flyovers, through a charmless concrete jungle to a dodgy hostel in a non-descript (if central) neighbourhood and handed the keys to the windowless room next to the late-night bar (and in Rio ´late-night´ actually means ´early-morning´ we learned later ... much later).

BUT despite our initial assessment we came to like Rio very much.

There have been but a few sights on our trip such as Iguassu, Sydney Harbour and the Taj - which have instantly made our spirits soar high above the day-to-day - and taking in the panorama and then watching the sunset over Rio from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain (that with the cable car from the Bond movie) was certainly one of them.

Yet stunning from on high, Rio is not so at street-level. It´s a city of scattered districts held together by wide urban highways. The streets are tired and architecture is invariably concrete high-rise.

Even the beaches (right), whilst naturally beautiful are dirty on close inspection and backed by huge development (the 4 square km area immediately behind Copacabana, for example, has a population of 250,000 making it one of the highest population densities in the world). On top that it´s hard to relax because personal security is always an issue.

Still, we liked very much the people we met in Rio, who, as with everyone we´ve met in Brazil are ridiculously wholehearted, warm and friendly (to the point of lunacy). So, lifted by our Sugar Loaf trip and buoyed by the people, we managed to enjoy (safely) a taste of the nightlife with drinks on some of the pavement bars until late.

And after more than a few drinks we came to the conclusion that it would be wholly unfair to think of Rio as an ´old slapper´ - rather, she´s more like your classic middle-aged Richmond wife: striking when spotted from a distance, she´s clearly a bit past her best on closer inspection, but once you get to know her, you find that the old girl´s still good for a big night out.

Joe