Hello family and friends!

We are 4 days into our adventure and boy have we been falling apart! We've suffered a combination of minor medical issues but finally it feels like we are coming out of the other side!! Probably to be expected when you stop working and throw yourself to the otherwise of the world without much rest bite.

Despite this small blip we had some brilliant experiences in Rio. We felt it is a city great for its beaches and views but the architecture is nothing special and it is pretty much as expensive as London, so very limited on the eating out front when you are on a budget.

We did the usual tourist attractions including the cable car up sugar loaf mountain to see the view which was incredible, although if you're scared of heights or mountains it's an absolute no go for you (Mum this includes most of Rio for you ;-)!). We also went to see 'Christ the Redeemer' on the mountain train but it was so cloudy up there you could barely see his face so we literally saw him and nothing else, had a coffee and came down again.

Copacabana and Ipanema beaches saw us risking a swim in the strong currents of the Atlantic and body surfing our way back to the shore which was awesome. The locals are really friendly and warned us when they thought we were getting to the beaches a bit too close to the favelas.

Climbing up the highest peak in the national park behind the centre of the Rio pretty much did us in as it was boiling, and humid and after a four hour climb up and down we we're both shattered. It was however my favourite experience in Rio because the views were spectacular and there were hardly any other people attempting it so we had the view to ourselves from the top.

Yesterday we took the 7 hour bus journey to Ouro Preto and will be here all weekend. I will blog again next week to tell you all about it.

Alice x