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...

I got a bit emotional saying bye to Mum and Dad but knowing we´ll see them in 4 months made it easier. Terminal 5 was really swanky and James had to steer me out of Jack Wills I couldn´t justify anything even with duty free prices. After a short train ride we got to our gate and then onto the first flight of the trip. The up grade to...... emergency exit seats was well worth it. We made friends with the air hostess and James got his money worth of film watc...