Hello from Rio!
Right! As this is the first time I have been able to get on the internet for a decent amount of time I am going to try and relay the last 2 weeks in as much detail as I can!
So....first stop
SAO PAULO
We were greeted by Sians old Nanny Jana and taken back to stay at her amazing house in Villa Madelana - which is a nice upmarket artsy area in Sao Paulo - not really travelling ville but very nice for us to stay in for 5 days!!! We were taken out to parties, wined and dined and treated like princesses. We went to markets, parks, and generally explored the city which is absolutly HUGE btu very cool. Got to grips with the metro and saw alot of strange people in the centre....seemed to either be full of the very rich or very poor - very dodgy in areas but we survived and are alive to tell the tale! The people we were staying with were amazing, as was her sister with her O.C style INCREDIBLE house we went to one night (open plan, glass walls, swimming pool, recording studio....i could go on!). Needless to say it was all amazing...and we are going back for a few days after rio!

BOICICONGA
Boiciconga is a Brazilian sea side town recommended to us by Jana who we stayed with in Sao Paulo. We stayed there for a few nights, which was our first hostel experience! Very nice hostel, had a pool etc....! We had a pretty chilled out time there, went to the beach, went out for dinner, hung out around the pool and had abit of an explore whilst trying to master portugese - was a nice little town! We then hopped on a bus to a place called

SAO SEBASTIAN & ILHA BELLA
Sao Sebastian again is a little Brazilian sea side place which we stayed in as we wanted to go to the Island Ilha Bella which is a 30 min ferry boat ride away from the port in Sao Sebastian. We arrived there early morning - dumped our stuff in the hostel (Which was impossible to find and a random old lady who spoke no english who worked on a stall in town walked us the entire way to help us find it! - everyone is so nice here). So yes dumped our stuff and scooted over to Ilha Bella. A gorgeous Island which was ours to explore (The pic for this entry is a pic of the island!) Many waterfalls and trecks, its so pretty, but full of bugs!!!! After walking about 10 million miles...(we´re getting good at that!) We got the boat back to Sao Sebastian and went out for dinner. I am getting very good at experimenting with my food, trying loads of new things, and alot of fish! Fish is so good here, but a tad expensive!

PARATI
Parati is the most BEAUTIFUL place....we staying in an increbible beach hut style hostel right on the beach - filled about 70 people it was stunning. Favorite hostel yet!! Such a nice artsy historical town too which was about a 20 min walk from our beach. I was also Brum uni ville!! hehe. We met 3 guys from there on our first night, and a few nights later another guy from brum uni so there was 7 of us all from brum from the same year and had loads of mutural friends! Was very cool. So anyway we did lots of good stuff - on our first day we went canoeing to another Island which was amazing, second day to a gorgeous beach which was a 40 min HORRENDUS bus journey away called Trindad, and then our 3rd day to this huge waterfall which you could slide down! So much fun! We also had a massive night out that same day with nearly the whole hostel, it was so so so much fun I loved it! We left the next day and headed to Ilha Bella.....

ILHA BELLA
The most beautiful Island in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Literally..Paradise!
On our night we did abit of exploring and went out for dinner and had a few drinks, our second day was amazing. We went to a beach called Lopez Mendez - which is apparntly one of the top 10 beaches in the world (my profile pic on facebook at the mo is from there!!!) I cant even put it into words.....my favorite day so far. We got a 45 min boat ride to the other side of the island (which was amazing, reminded me of the isles of Scilly so right up my street!) We mored up to a beach, and then had to treck 30 mins in the blistering heat, thuoght i was going to collaspe! But then we reached the beach and it was so worth it.
White Sand....it was so soft it felt like talcon powder. Ive never seen anthing like it. The water was crystal clear. I cant even explain it - amazing. WE spent the whole day there, then got the boat back. The best day! We got back to our hostel....fell asleep watching the most amazing storm...only to wake up to our room completeltly flooded and the whole hostel was raining (INSIDE) from all the electircal points...not the best! so we had to move rooms...and then it was all fine. We then went out for dinnner, was still in the midle of a storm and i saw tuns of sheet and fork lightning and then the whole island lost power! Half way through our dinner! So everything then booted up on generaters...think it happens all the time! Pretty funny! After dinner we met some more locals and then met up with the brum boys and all went to a party at another hostel which was lots of fun!!
Next day, it rained the ENTIRE day, we stayed in all day playing UNO with some IRISH boys we met...then all braved the rain in out pacamacs (thankyou liz!) went and got pizza, island lost power half way through our dinner again! hehe, was lots of fun though! we were gong to stay a few more nights as i wanted to go to the lagoon but we were told it was oging to rain even more the whole weekend so we came to rio as planned - and travelled for about 12 hours to get here! ferry, coach, bus etc....but now we´re here, partying it up in Rio in the rain! I will report back after Rio! Hopefully this silly computer will let me uppoad photos too!

Missing you all

much love

xxxxx