After a steady 21 hours on a bus we arrived in Rio De Janeiro on the 12th August 2008. It had been a long one but we were all ready for some beach action. The weather was awesome and after a taxi to our hostel we were down at the Copacobana in minutes! Cooking. Copacabana beach is awesome but we were told that Ipanema had an even better beach. We were happy frying however hunger called. Now it´s somewhat expensive in Rio in general so in order to watch the pennies we popped it into Colonel Sanders´ crib. Now for the record we have been around to his a number of times over the past week. Mix in Domino´s and a couple all you can eats and that´s about it unless otherwise mentioned. Keeping an actual count of visits will be embarrassing so it´ll be left at that. After lunch and a bit more time on the beach we headed back to the hostel for a quick change. That night we decided to hit the cinema (Batman) and had an early one. Rio seemed amazing.

Up early on the Wednesday we decided to be productive. The hostel sorted us out with a taxi for the day and we were off. First up was the statue of Christ. We had a couple of stops on the way up, and before you knew it, we were at the feet of the great man. It was incredible. Like any famous landmark you see so many times on the TV there is nothing like standing infront of it. It was hard to take your eyes off. Chuck in the view of Rio from up there and it simply was amazing. From there you had such a contrasting view. Look in one place and there would be huge fevelas sprawling up the mountain. Glance somewhere else and you´d see something that reminded you of Monte Carlo and that is probably not too far off the price either. It was crazy. You could also see the massive Maracana football stadium which looked impressive as well as a 14km bridge. The harbour was awesome and the beaches stretched for miles. The difference in wealth to areas is incredible. You would move to Rio in a heart beat to live in a richer area as it´s simply stunning. The faveles however bring everyone back down to earth. Still Rio is beautiful. After we managed to close our mouths and take in the sights we were on our way back down the escaltors (Slightly spoils it a little although we would recommend Inca trail organisers to take heed) and off in the taxi. The statue was brilliant. On our way down the mountainside we stopped at the edge of a favela to take some photos. It was interesting to hear about and incredible to see up close. Pushing on, our next stop was the famous mosaic steps. They have appeared in Snoop Dogg´s music video beautiful as well as a U2 Video and many commercials. They are officially called the Santa Teresa Mosaic Stairs (google them!!) and were done by a guy called Jorge Seleron. We were lucky enough to meet the actual guy who done them. They were awesome. Great idea and stunning to look at. After plenty of snaps we had some libedo enhancing smoothy on recommendation from the taxi driver which was pretty bloody nice. After a couple of great sights had been taken in we headed back for a walk to Impanema. It all looked very nice however it was getting dark. That evening we decided to go somewhere for a meal. After failing to get into a Hard Rock Cafe we ended up in a TGI fridays. Not very Brazilian but never mind! After that we headed back for some Z´s. Crackin day.

Our days from here seem to take a similar pattern! Up for breaky at the hostel we headed down to Copacabana for the day. There we turned into complete beach bums with usual beach activites. The people in Rio are somewhat shape so it´s pretty easy to people watch all day. Thursday was an incredibly lazy day. The sun is too good to waste not being on a beach! Thursday evening we hit a massive shopping centre. 5 floors of banter. The wallets didn´t get too much of a spanking however. Brazil is stupidly expensive. After some serious window shopping it was bed time!

On the Friday we decided to mix it up and hit Impanema. It is an amazing beach and there we spent the day messing around. It was awesome to finally get some good R and R time. We don ´t have a hard task with what we get upto by a long shot but it´s a nice way to round of this jaunt. Chilling. Friday evening we did some more shopping before having a night out on the tiles. We had heard Lapa on a friday night cannot be missed. And it´s true. With a carnival like atmoshphere and who knows how many thousands of people it´s crazy. We´d had a few cheeky ones in the room and Lapa provided us with the Brazil beer Skol. It tasted alright at the time and we were on the big boy cans. We hit a few cheeky clubs that evening had an all round drunkeness night. It was quality. Rio does know how to party.

On the Saturday we woke up feeling like Bob the Builder had reversed his digger over our heads. A warning to anyone thinking of having a night on the Skol. Don´t. It was naughty. Chris and Luke had a bit of a struggle getting out of bed but Danielle did manage to carry James down to the beach. However Saturday we had a big event that needed to be put off for another week. It was time to send Danielle home. We were gutted. Danielle had fitted in with us liabilities with ease and couldn´t have been more of a delight to travel with. She put up with Luke and Chris´s broad range of banter that not everyone always understands and added a new dimension to our group. It felt like she had always been travelling with us and it was somewhat nice having a lady to keep us in order! All we can say is we´ll miss her for our last week and it was brilliant that she came. We hope she enjoyed her time with us and that the money we have paid her is sufficient not tell our parents everything we get upto! Only kidding. Danielle we´ll see you Sunday! After our little airport run and a teary goodbye we were back down to 3. It did feel strange and chucked in with a bit of a hangover we kept Sunday night quiet. The Colonel had to comfort us.

On the Sunday we carried on our routine. We beached it all day to work on the tan. Sunday evening we went and watched the new Adam Sandler flick (s***ter). Nice chilled day.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesay have all been pretty much identical. We´ve hit the beach, done some shopping, gone to a really good night market and generally chilled. It really has been awesome doing it (probably sounds strange) and you could literally spend a month straight chilling on Copacabana. It´s naughty. Monday night we did head out for a few drinks. We found ourselves a nice little bar that was quite busy and sat for hours talking about all we had done over the past few months and what we want home to be like now. It really was a great little evening. We´re going to miss them!

And that´s pretty much it. Right now it´s Wednesday night and we´re heading out of Rio for good. Rio (which is Brazil for us) has probably been our favourite city and we are so glad we have finished here. It´s exactly what we wanted and despite all the scare stories you hear about Brazil we´d recommend it to anyone. It´s fantastic and again probably one of our fav´places of the whole trip. We should have got here earlier. 2 more weeks would have been easy and very nice. After this we´re heading to Sao Paulo where we have a cheeky little hotel for 2 nights, probably some chill time by the pool and then travelling 2008 will be over!

And that´s where it´s pretty much the end for this blog!!! So how to finish??? (Warning American like acceptance speech coming up!) Well first up we´ve got to say some thank yous. First up (and easily first at that) we have to say thank you to our parents. Travelling has been the greatest thing any of us have ever done in our lives and not for one moment do we believe it would have been possible without our parents. We´re a lucky bunch of lads. Our parents make our lives stupidly easly for us in England. They´ve supported us like mad through travelling and not just financially (although we can tell you that bloody helped!) but in every other area that we´ve needed it. We´ll never be able to put together the appropriate words to thank our parents for what they have done for us and not just travelling but in bringing us up. You´ll never know how much we appreciate it. All we will say is we love them, we´ve missed them like crazy and we cannot wait to see them. Elizabeth, John, Paul, Linda, Anne and Dean. Your boys are coming home!

We´d also like to give our siblings a mention. First up we hope certain siblings have vacated certain rooms!!! Only joking. Being away for seven months gives us more of an appreciation of you guys!! You´re not just siblings but friends as well and we´ve missed you all. I know myself (Chris) maybe wouldn´t have done such crazy things if it wasn´t for his Sister setting the bar. She went travelling first and was somewhat of an inspiration in doing so. Again we love you and can´t wait to see ya!

We´d also like to thank our grand parents (although not all prob have interent access so if someone could tell them!!). They´ve put up with our postcards and we know how much they think of us and follow us and we appreciate it like mad. We love them to death and have missed them more than they know. Again we can´t wait to see them.

Our friends also deserve a shout out. We´ve been around the world and met some amazing people. It´s made us realise just how good our friends are back at home. They´re the best. We´re lucky to have such a great bunch of mates and we can´t wait to take them all for a beer! (we probably won´t be able to pay for that beer).

We´d also like to thank all the people who have followed this blog! It´s a great feeling to know other people are interested in what we´re doing and we hope it´s been entertaining. Please forgive the bad language!

And finally to round off travelling. This could be the longest piece of writing ever but we´ll try make it short. It´s been amazing. It was a long time coming and was everything and more than we expected. It´s been an epic, action packed journey and we are all close to tears that it has come to end. The easiest way to descibe it is to say we´ve just had the best 7 (or 4 for James) months of our lives. We will never forget it. From crazy Thailand, party Oz, best place ever NZ and the truely magnificent South America it has been astonishing. It wasn´t a holiday but an adventure. And a f***ing brilliant adventure at that. And the group we have travelled with has been incredible. For 7 months of living everyday with each other arguements have been miles less than a handfull and each minature in scale. We couldn´t ask for more. It´s been an honour. I´d personally like to thank all the guys (that´s me Chris). The hero Matt, the drunken Devon boys and the lovely Danielle. Jimbo it´s been f***ing awesome travelling with ya. You´ve bought tears my eyes on many occassions and i´m so glad you came! You´re a true mate and a f***ing legend. It´ll almost seem strange not waking up in a bunk bed next to ya (and not in a gay way!). It´s been a privilige! And finally Luksta. Well there isn´t much to say. If there was one person i wanted to do this trip with it was this guy. Best mates don´t come any better I can promise you, and for the last 7 months he´s been on fire. It´s something we´ve both been wanting to do for a long time and to live your dreams is always something special. I probably would have never been able to do it without him! I know I don´t need to say it but cheers big man! You know I love ya! (I did pre - warn American style speech).

So that´s it. 7 months, 15 flights, 11 countries, a s*** load of money and more importantly a s*** load of fun! Travelling 2008. We lived it. We loved it. We smashed it. We´ll miss it. We´ll never forget it..................