Rio bus drivers drive with one foot on the accelerator and the other foot on the accelerator! So you get to see alot of Rio in a short space of time, which is good as its massive. We´re staying in Santa Teresa - the Bohemian district. It´s on a hillside with cobbled streets, rickety old trams, colonial buildings and walking distance to the unrivalled music scene of Lapa. Lapa is totally the place to be for live samba bands and on our 2nd day we found ourselves drinking and dancing the DAY away with the locals. Not another gringo in sight. It was lovely to see people in their 70s dancing their socks off. The locals took us under their wing and kept telling me (not Stu) how beautiful I was and they kept beaming huge smiles at us.

Yesterday we took the cog train up Cocovada for stunning views over the whole of Rio and ofcourse to stand beneath the open arms of Christ Redeemer, it takes your breath away.

Today we walked round our local Favela and didn´t get shot at - how disappointing! Then we spent a few hours recovering on Ipanema beach. Now we´re about to jump on a plane and head to the hippy backpacker beach town of Jericoacoara in the North East of Brazil. Its a mere 3hr flight followed by a 7hrs bus ride - this country is seriously big!