Hi guys,A quick message from Ilha Grande, the beautiful island about 150km off the coast west of Rio. It really is the place to get away from it all with tropical beaches, rain forest and loads of lush restaurants and plenty of bars! The island is a nationally protected area and no cars are allowed on the island - there are not any roads for them to drive on anyway!We arrived here on Friday after a 3 hour bus and one hour boat ride from Rio and reached the main s...

Hello all, We have been on a cultural outing to the Maracana to see the local Rio derby match between Vasco and Botafogo. It is quite a different experience to that of football in the UK and the style of play is completely different too, the idea is not to defend, just to score the most goals! We sat in the Vasco end, although we could've sat anywhere - once you are inside the stadium you can sit anywhere! It was a carnival-like atmoshphere, flags, drums, chant...

Hello Everybody!What a busy couple of days we have had, our feet are aching from running for buses to get us all over Rio. So what have we been up to?Monday our main mission was to find our hostel in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood of Rio. The hostel is a beautiful old colonial portuguese/french townhouse and because we are here out of tourist season we have got it to ourselves! When we got here we celebrated with a few beers, which even Sarah likes and then heade...

Hey everybody, Well we have finally arrived - quite a long journey! Just settling in today, a little sightseeing around the Centro and Santa Teresa - the Brazillian beers have been helping us along the way! Sightseeing commences with a bang tomorrow - Copacabana and Christ the Redeemer, maybe a cable car trip up Sugarloaf too. Followed by Sarah strutting her stuff at the Rio Scenarium, live samba dancing in the evening. Will be back in touch soon, hopefully wi...

Only 3 days to go now before departure, how quickly have the past three months gone!! Thank you for all the messages already please keep them coming they really make us smile! Next time we write a 'blog' on here we will have much more interesting things to tell you all! Bye for now! Sarah & Andrew xxx