So we arrived safely in Sao Paulo AT 5:30AM after the worst 10 hour flight we?ve ever been on! We had two seats right in the middle towards the back of the plane, with mortisha adams to my right, sumo wrestler to toms left, and the cast of river dance behind us, practising on the back of our chairs!! To make it worse the film choice was less than inspiring so we ended up standing at the back near the trolly dollies landing seats for 2 1/2 hours!

We left the airport at 7am and the sun was struggling to burn through the clouds, and it failed miserably. That grey cloud was still following me, though it was still nice and warm. Our first sight of Sao Paulo after leaving the airport was the prison, situated in between 2 very busy highways, presumably so if prisoners escape they have to try and dodge the huge tankers steaming down the 8 lanes either side first!!! The prisoners were all hanging out of the window bars, it was quite a sight, fascinating in a way.

Heading closer to Sao Paulo it was clear to see this was a huge city of very high rise buildings all very close together. We headed towards the Marriot hotel, where i was fortunate enough to be able to use my reward points for one final night of luxury! The hotel as expected was lovely, and the reception staff were very friendly considering we didnt understand a word they were saying, and vice versa.

Now it?s Mr Smith turn to write something ;o) The first day in Sao Paulo we ventured down onto the tube (Metro in Brazil) which to be honest is as hot as London. However not so crowded, the people are nicer and they have cleaners on them to clean up all the blood! only kidding!! Plus they are much cheaper! We got the tube to Tiete to buy our coach tickets to get us to Foz later on in the week. We then got the tube to a place called Republica as this is where the restaurants (so called) are. We found a little run down buffet eatery which was all you can eat for about 8RS which is about 2 pound. So as you can imagine it was local dog on the menu or whatever dead tramp they found that day. Have to say very tasty though!!! We then took a long walk back to the Marriot (about 5pm) where we slept until the next morning! Very very tired bunny?s we were! When we woke the next morning we were beyond hungry and groggy (and I was moody)!!! For the easy option we decided to eat at McDonalds we had seen the night before as it was about a 2 minute walk away. However arriving there at 9.30am we found out that they did not open till 10.30. Dam it!!! We decided to go back to the Marriot for breakfast as we needed food and fast or I was gunna faint! Ok maybe not but we were hungry!!! Even though the room we stayed in would cost the average person 140 pound per night breakfast was not included. To make it better they charge 15 pound for breakfast too!! Never the less we ate and ate like a king I did! I got my moneys worth. Sausage, bacon, pastries, fruit........ EVERYTHING. Lisa had a bowl of cereal and moaned it was too much food!! Anyways that was the last of our luxuries as just over an hour later we were heading out of the poshest hotel in Sao Paulo with all our trecking gear on and into 30 degree heat. We didn?t look like tourist at all!!! Maybe just a little! So off we went with a trumpety trump trump trump trump! A man at the Marriot gave us directions via tube to buy our next set of coach tickets. However the clever man at the hotel gave us the wrong coach station to go to! I will make a complaint when I get back :o) It turn out that the coach station we should have gone to is in Tiete which is the place we went to on our first day in Sao Paulo. It also turns out that these two stations are at the opposite end of the tube line to each other. In 30 degree heat and with about 20lbs of stuff on your back going back on a hot and stuffy tube is oodles of fun! NOT NOT NOT!!!!! Anyways to cut a long story short we got our tickets and then headed off on our 4 hour coach journey to Sao Sebastiao. From here we took a 10 minute cargo type boat ride thingy over to the Island we will be staying on for the next three days. The Island I here you ask is Ilha Bela.