We wanted to go to Ilha Grande which is about an hour from Rio, we had heard this is a beautiful beach resort and a wonderful place to relax. After researching the weather conditions (which has become a regular pastime of ours on this trip) we realised Ilha Grande was expecting lots of storms and therefore decided to give it a miss imagining it wouldn't be all that relaxing in the rain. The whole of the Coast was expecting storms so we thought we would go as far south as possible in one bus trip and ended up at a lovely placed called Santa Catalina, an island near Florianopolis where the weather was looking better.

This is a popular holiday resort for many Brazilians and we could see why, beautiful beaches, scenery and plenty of facilities nearby. The downfall was the torrential rain upon our arrival (not expected). It was a shame because the hostel we were staying in was amazing with a pool, our own kitchen, lovely staff and the beach just around the corner. We had booked in for 2 nights but changed it to 1 night after researching the weather and noticing that Punta Del Este in Uruguay (our next stop) had a huge picture of a sun next to it - fingers crossed so off we trot in search of some good weather!