Hi all

This is our first entry and we have quite a lot to update so we´re just going to give you a quick summary of the best bits so far!

Rio-
First we stayed in Copacabana which was quite scary because of all the horror stories we had heard (in fact a hostel got robbed at gun point a couple of days after we left!) but luckily we didn´t have much time there, just enough to explore Ipanema and Copacabana a bit.

A couple of nights later we moved to Botofogo where it turned out Kylie and Laura were staying, a very happy coincidence! This was a pretty good location as it was on the metro and in the middle of the beaches and the main tourist sites. Here´s a quick summary of what we got up to:

- CARNAVAL! We went to the main parade at the Samabadrome on the Monday, the night with the best Samba schools. It was so much fun, the floats and costumes were amazing and it was fun to have a few drinks and dance in the stands! The most fun part of Carnaval however were the ´blocos´ (street parties) which tended to start as small gatherings and escalate into parades along the streets.

- Christo Redentor- got the train up to the statue, there were amazing views of all of Rio. The statue was really impressive, absolutely huge looking over the city. You could also see it from most of the places you were in the city which was really pretty at night.

- Black market- biggest market we have ever seen (spread over 7 blocks). It sold absolutely everything from electrical goods to Carnaval costumes! We bought our hawaiian flowers there as our costumes (pretty low key compared to a lot of other people!)

- Santa Teresa- The oldest part of Rio that unlike most of the rest of the city has been pretty well preserved. Here we went to our best Bloco, met a bunch of nice Brazillans dressed as clowns and paraded through the streets to the band that leads the parade around and got sprayed but water, and cachaça guns!

- Catedral Metropolitana- a cathedral that from the outside looks like a 60s tower block but from the inside is absolutely stunning with massive stained glass windows and played nice chilled music.

Paraty-

Paraty is a old colonial beach town four hours away from Rio. The old town is gorgeous with old cobbled streets and pretty colourful buildings. We´ve been out a couple of times in town to a club that plays an ecclectic mix of salsa and michael jackson (haha), quite fun though. The people from the hostel are really fun as well so we´ve had a big group to go out with. During the day we´re spent time on the beach here which is pretty skanky but yesterday we took a bus to a nicer beach called Trindade which was gorge except for the jelly fish and crabs! Today we´re going to go to some waterfalls and fresh water pools which are meant to be beautiful.

Hope you are all well! Miss you lots xxx