"When my baby, when my baby smiles at me I go to Rio", "At the Copa, Copacabana", "Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking"..... Geeky songs - checkBeautiful beaches - checkCrazy Brazilians - checkThis is Rio baby!We arrived on a stinking hot public holiday Friday. The beach was manic. After a short walk on Copacabana in the hot sun and a dip in the filthy sea, I'd had enough! Initial impressions of Rio...

The beauty of Paraty is its close proximity to over 300 beaches and islands….. (LP South America on a Shoestring). The old town isn't bad either. Originally a colonial port town for transporting gold back to Portugal, it is delightful with its cobblestone streets and array of churches. Unfortunately for the gold transporters, the pirates used to sit around the headland in Trinidade, waiting for the gold ships to depart! But more on that later. After our wee...

"You speak English?"; "Yes"; "I don't"….. Eduardo and Gisele took us to Itapema for the weekend for a little bit of beach time. We started the weekend with a BBQ (excellent) late on Friday night in Eduardo's sister's beautiful flat in Itapema. I was afraid I might ruin the place just by sitting down. It looked as though it had just been styled for the cover of a magazine; immaculate furniture, white walls and the occasional full...

After traipsing around the continent for more than two months it was delightful to be welcomed into a home…. We spent the week with Gisele and Eduardo, Brazilian friends of ours met through the KPMG London connection. It was great to just hang out and Gisele and Eduardo are excellent hosts. They introduced us to some of the finer points of Brazilian life: - Guarana has become an addiction. I've never really liked soft drinks, but I'm thinking it's a good th...