Right before the last post I had my first samba experience and forgot about it. It was my host brothers birthday party, his 32nd I think. He went to a samba club in a favela pretty close by, it was pretty sweet. The took one of those caged in public basketball courts, decorated it and put in a sound system. It was pretty sweet. Two hours after we got they finally started dancing (they kept telling me they weren't drunk enough yet). It was pretty cool at first, since it was new I guess, but it was really loud and crowded so it got old kinda fast.

The week between now and then was pretty normal. Had a test on Thursday and a day off on Friday though. With the day off we decided to hike up Pedra da Gavea, i was told it was the best hike in Rio. On the way to meet a guy who lived near the base we took a little tour through Rocinha, supposedly the largest favela in South America, just looks like a crappy neighborhood anywhere else I guess. We meet on the other side of Rocinha and start walking where we were told to. Apparently there was a communication failure, the brazilians thought we wanted to go to the rock you hang glide off of. It took us a while and to figure this out though, so it was too late to go back to the original plan. We ended up checking out an ok waterfall and heading back home. It was pretty fun though.

Yesterday we did, however, make it to the right spot, with new directions. The hike was really cool, took about 3 hours up. And you can see the whole city from the top.  Well worth the wait. Kennedy, when y'all come we'll go there for sure.