Rio de Janeiro was the first big city I ever heard about, the first time I heard the name was from my mothers good friend, she lived there with her husband in the early 1980s and every time I saw her I listened to stories about the great exotic far away city that had the biggest carnival in the world. She told me how there were hungry children begging for your left overs outside the restaurant, the big favellas where the police could not set there foot and the biggest brightest carnival in the world. I could not wait to go there myself...
