A chilled few days was needed after Rio and Ilha Grande was perfect for that! A tropical island just off the coast of Brazil, a few hours south of the city of Rio. It's called the big island but much of it uninhabited because of the thick forest. Randomly met a few of the guys we had a drink with early in the week at Books hostel in Rio so nice little crowd with us. Found some decent little restaurants and spent the evenings pottering about the main town on the ...

Rio de Janeiro! What a funny week, one of the best of the trip so far and matched by a great group we met. We stayed in Books hostel, in the heart of Lapa, the party district of the city. The first day one of the rooms had a spout of bed bugs so all the guys clothes and bags had to be fully fumigated and frozen. All they had to wear was their bed sheets so everyone in the hostel donned the same and had a toga party! The 10 of the guys we spent the week with all ...