Ilha Grande Our journey to Ilha Grande started rather well. We had booked a transfer through our hostel and, on the morning of our departure, a private car arrived to pick us up. We were joined by three lovely Irish girls who we hit it off with straight away! It had begun to rain in Rio the night before and had not stopped since. Road safety in Brazil is touch and go at the best of times so add to that monsoon rains and a cabby who thought himself to be a formul...

The River of January Happy New Year everybody!! What a way to start it! Rio has been absolutely amazing start to finish! Where do we begin?!! The first crisis of the trip happened straight away! We attempted to take some money out at rio airport and the machine ate my card and wouldn't release it! After appropriate use of the the F and C words (sorry nan!) I managed to pull the thing out unscathed using brute strength! Whist queuing for a more friendly ATM we w...