8th-12th June Ilha do Mel or Honey Island really was as sweet as its name, no motorised vehicles are allowed on the island so it was really peaceful and pretty. We had planned to spend a few days relaxing on the beach but, unfortunately the weather didn't allow it. This didn't deter us and instead we did a LOT of walking and exploring. I think our average was about 9km per day and this covered all sorts of terrain including rocks, mud, sand, grass and grave...

6-8th June I wasn't expecting much from Curitiba but from the start it was pleasant surprise. Our hostel, Knock Knock was really good, clean with a big kitchen and only sharing our bathroom with 6 people! As we were only here for the day we did the open top tour bus (Grandy would've been proud!) we were allowed 4 stops and enjoyed the botanical garden, parque tanjun, Hansel and Gretel park and a modern art museum which had some interesting displays (over 18's...

4th June We were sad to leave Paraty, but the concrete jungle (not New York) of Sao Paulo was calling. Our lovely hostel owner gave us a lift to the bus station and before we knew it we were in rainy SP. We arrived quite late but, on lonely planet's strong recommendation we just had to find pizza. After a few wrong turns, we blamed the directions of the street signs we got to Speranza an amazing pizza place situated in an old brothel. 5th June It was stil...

29th May-We woke up this morning to find more blue skies and sunshine, this was of the highest importance today as we were attempting to go on a helicopter ride around the sites of Rio. We walked from our hostel, as surprisingly the hostel didn't run helicopter tours, to the heli pad in the hope that other people wanted a ride today as the minimum they take is 3. We were so lucky as there was a French couple waiting for the same ride as us and we were on the n...

Today really got going at 1 o'clock when we began our tour of 'Rio in a day' with our lovely guide Andrea. Met a girl, Tasha from the UK who was good fun, despite being a Maths teacher! We headed up the steep roads of Cochina (Camel Hump) towards Christ the Redeemer. I had Karl Pilkington whinging about how rubbish it was in the back of my mind. We had 35 minutes which was a good amount of time to cram a LOT of photos in. The statue was so impressive (awe inspi...