We had another long day in the truck to Maceio, just under 12hrs and it felt like about 100. Brazil is very green and we have passed lots of lush vegetation. Maceio is a rather decent size city but we are out of the city a little ways and camping just across from the beach. We reached camp about 7pm and put our tents up in the dark, having to be careful with placement as lots of palm trees here with coconuts that can cause quite a bit of damage if one was to fall...

We had 3 nights in Salvadore, which is the capital of the state Bahia here in Brazil. We had a long drive to get here and were glad to reach the hotel and lie in air con for a while. Met up and went out for dinner. Ended up being about 11 of us in our group and we went to this little cafe and sat out in the street. We ordered pizzas and they took a while to come out. Brought all but 2 pizza's out and said 'no more'. We said 'yes, 2 more'. He replied 'no more pizz...

After we left the internet at Ouro Preto and had lunch we had a small wander around town. There were alot of churches in this town and very quaint and colonial streets and buildings. We also found a shop where you helped yourself to icecream and toppings and paid by the weight. What a great idea. No rain this day and no rain the past couple of days. From Oruo Preto we had a long drive and stayed at a hotel at a service station again. Cold showers but at least th...

When I left off last time, I mentioned I would write about the favella. We were taken out to Rocinha, the largest favella in Rio with 300,000 residents. We were told we were perfectly safe as we were with a local. First we were taken into their Samba school which is like a big hall. Apart from using it for practices, it is used for sports and also for teaching courses like English and sewing (which comes in quite handy for all those costumes they have to make). T...

WOW, that is all I can say about last night. The Sambadrome was incredible. I have never seen anything like it before. The glitz, the glamour, the colour, the people and the floats - WOW. I don't know if anyone saw any of it on tele or the news, but times it tenfold because TV doesn't do it justice. The atmosphere in the stands is incredible, everyone is up and dancing and singing and everyone gets right into it. Neale & Sally, two of my friends from camp ar...