What should have been a one way 12 hour bus journey turned into two seperate bus rides of close to 19 hours from Rio to Florianpolis via Curitiba. We caught a locaal bus to our hostel - Tucano hostel which was on the other side of the town. The hostel was voted the best hostel in Brazil in 2010 and we understood why when we got there. It was beautifully laid out with a pool and bar area as we walked in with a communal lounge, dining area and kitchen at the back. After spending our time in Rio in a shared dorm we decided to splurge and book a private ensuite room. One of the few luxuries of backpcking, we have come to realise in our short time so far, is being able to leave your toileteries in the bathroom without worrying about someone taking...

We took a long walk along the lagoon close to our hostel to find somewhere to eat. We had our hearts set on a slap up seafood meal. As we walked further down the lagoon we noticed the prices falling and falling and eventually settled on a a big restaurant in which we were the only patrons. We ordered a 2 for 1 meal but as we hadnt managed to grasp Portugese, we had no idea what to expect. Out came three plates of different kinds of prawns and a large salad. We though that we had hit the jackpot... 5 minutes later however, our waiter brought a large plate of chips, a bowl of rice as well as 2 huge fillets of fish in a seafood sauce. There was no way this could all be included.... We thought he had got the order wrong and that we were going to have to pay for all the extras. We bashfully called the waiter and somehow manged to mime our way through a conversation and he confirmed that it was all included. Needless to say we feasted!!!!

Our first full day in Flori was an overcast one and as it turnes out, so was the forecast for the next 2 weeks there. We headed off to one of the 42 beaches in the area and were lucky enough to stumble onto the final of the international womens' surfing competition. We plonked on the beach and became immediate surf experts, rating the girls as they surfed and comparing our scores to the judges - We were obviously waaaay off!! We took a long walk along the beach and found a huge rock at the edge to sit on and watch the surfers in the sea. That evening we sat under the awning and drank caiparinhas, chatting to the other travellers, a newly wed couple from Jersey in the UK (Marcus and Carly), two middle aged New Zealanders (Gina and Lisa), two Australian girls (Lee and Michelle) and few other people from the States, Germany and Denmark who were living in the hostel while they studied at the local university. There was intentions of going into town to a club or bar but ealry in the evening it started to rain and it did not let up until all night so we decided to head to bed and have an early one.

The joy of backpacking is being able to chop and change plans and we put that into effect in Flori. We were booked to stay there for 4 nights to soa in some sun and hit the sea but because of the not-so-nice weather we decided to check out early and head off to Iguacu.

We took another overnight bus to get to Foz de Iguazu and made sure to give ourselves enough time so as not to have a repeat performance of Rio. The bus we got this time wsa a double decker - it felt like we were a cork on the sea - swaying from side to side the whole night and struggling to get any sleep. The American movie being blast out of the speakers in Portugese didnt help matters either. So we were exhausted when we arrived in Iguasu. We checked into our Pousada and had a 2 hour na before heading off to the Brazilian side of the falls.

The park is very well geared towards the thousands of tourists. there are walkways and view points everywhere you walk. Each photo oppurtunity is better than the next so you must forgive the volume of Iguacu photos we have loaded. We have even cut them down for your sanity... It was a beautiful sunny day and we loved walking around and being in such a naturally stunning location.

On Sunday we took a full day tour to the Argentian side of the falls, which is by far more spectacular than the Brailian side. We started the day with a trek in an open air jeep, through the thick secondary jungle of the Iguacu region. We had a knowledgable guide on the vehicle with us who was the splitting image of our friend, Dean Shapiro. An 8km drive later, we arrived at the foot of a river where we boarded a speed boat that took on a drive down towards the bottoms of the falls. We were braced when the driver steered the boat directly under 2 of the falls which got us completely drenched but exhilerated. We met up with the rest of the tour group and spent the rest of the day walking along the many man made paths through the forest and over the rivers and waterfalls. We took a train towards the apex of the day, the Devil's throat, where we stood at the top of the largest of the falls and watched the torrents of water falling to the river below. No picture could do it justice - we took a video rather which puts itsa magnitude into perspective.

We walked back to the bus to get back to the hostel talking about how fortunate we are to be doing a trip like - to see such breathtaking feets of nature and experience such awesome adventures - We wake everyday smiling...