Click here for more pictures.Today I hit the road/air again and got the hell out of Sao Paulo. A good move in all respects. An early breakfast, followed by a re-pack (again) and checking I hadn't left anything in the room safe, and I jumped in a hotel car to the airport. Cost was R$110 which is about £30 so not too bad.At the airport a new checkin strategy dawned on me. No need to go to the desk, just check in on one of the machines so nobody gets to see my outrageously heavy Peli case. It worked! Hand luggage only is the way to go. I couldn't print my boarding pass from the hotel due to no printer.By the way, I finished yesterday's post from the hotel corridor which was the only place I could get a decent wifi signal.At the airport, the French again demonstrated their inability to queue.The short flight to Rio was uneventful at 45 mins. We landed, I was straight out and pre-paid for a taxi to Botofogo which everyone understands as being a place in Rio rather than Urca which my pronounciation fails to convey as anywhere on earth.I'd arranged to link up with Ben Queenborough who needed a place to stay, and my landlady has a spare room as her kids are on holiday, so we met up in my breakfast cafe downstairs. Ben had been in Sao Paulo with me last night and sat next to me at the game, getting some cracking shots, and he got an earlier flight to Rio than me so had consumed a couple of coffees and some orange food by the time I arrived.Ben had arranged to meet a charity organiser & teacher who lives in a small favela in Rio. At the mention of favela, everyone immediately assumes you're going to get shot, stabbed or otherwise abused. However, here I am unharmed after a very educational experience. Patrick lives in the Santa Amaro favela, which is pacified and with a fairly heavily armed police presence, with a bunch of other folks in what is quite a nice large house with a fabulous view.Patrick, from Stockport, has lived in Rio for 9 months and teaches English, as well as doing research into the history of the favelas. He spoke with much knowledge about the racial history of the favelas, the slavery background, and the way there are almost two worlds, the favelas and the "asphalt" which is everything else. A very nice guy indeed.He took us down the hill to a small concrete football pitch surrounded by chainlink fencing where a bunch of kids were playing football. This is the sort of scene that I'd been thinking of for some time, and I was really grateful that Ben had let me tag along.With Patrick's assistance, the kids and the other folk around were absolutely fine with our presence, with everything being very good humoured. Patrick explained that the favela isn't one of the "popular" ones with lots of tourists or journalists, and is far more "natural" than a lot of the bigger ones like Rochina near the England team hotel. Oh, England are out of the World Cup by the way. Tomorrow's training should be a dour affair. We hung around for about an hour with a good bit of banter from both parties as wel shot a good selection of pictures.I did a happy and a sad version of this picture. The kids were great, and this one is exactly what they were like.I was pretty freaked out going into the favela, especially against Mrs T's express orders, but as favelas go this one was small, peaceful and quiet, and Patrick was well known by the people there so there were no problems whatsoever. My situational awareness radar was on full alert though, but it was much more comfortable than a lot of times when I've been amongst an angry football crowd in England. I won't be going any where near the bigger ones that's for sure. But it was an excellent experience, and thanks to Patrick for being so helpful.Then it was back to the apartment to back up a load of pics to my portable hard drive as my laptop was clogged up from all the pics from last night's game, then dinner and drinks with Ben (sounds cosy I know) in Bar Urca a short taxi ride away looking over the bay. I had very nice fresh fish and chesnut rice. That's it for today. Tomorrow is England training.

21C this evening in Rio