We had a bit of lie-in following our Favela Funk party. We got up and went for breakfast with the prospect of an overcast day loaming ahead, but in the hope it would clear up as the day progressed. So, we headed out towards Copacabana Beach, unfortunately the weather was too cool and overcast to enjoy the beach and sea and the beachside stalls were also absent, probably due to the poor weather. Nevertheless, despite the weather, we decided to make the most of the...

Today we were up bright and early and grabbed a banana before heading with Janice to Copacabana market. We browsed the beachfront stalls and then headed over to the proper market, we made a few purchases and tried our hardest to barter before making our way back to the hostel for breakfast around 11.00am. At 12.00pm we were ready and waiting for the mini-bus to pick us up for our afternoon trip to the maracana stadium and the semi-final of the Carioca Cup betwee...

This morning we had a lazy sort of morning and left the hostel at about 12.15pm, after checking Sarah´s latest photos on a DVD, and headed straight for the Sugarloaf Mountain, with Janice. We took the two journey cable car up (Laura holding her nerve!), first one to a neighbouring mountain and the second took us directly onto the Sugarloaf itself. It is truely beautiful and the panoramic views of the sporadic Rio city were gorgeous! Even better with the clear...

This morning we were up bright and early, feeling a little worse for wear! Breakfast of ham and cheese toastie and fruit soon sorted us out and we were ready for our pick up at 9.45am. We were picked up by the 'Don't be a gringo, be a local' company who took us across Rio to Rocinha, a large favela in the hillside. We were dropped off at the bottom of the hill and each boarded the back of a motorbike for a hair-raising journey throught the main road of the favel...

Yesterday we woke and had a lazy morning. We wandered down to breakfast in our pj´s and enjoyed coffee, juice, bread, watermelon, banana and dulche de leche. We eventually left the hostel around 1,00pm and stopped off straight away at a buffett restaurant for a lunch time fuel up! We certainly took full advantage of the self-service, stacking our plates high with all sorts including salad, meat and beans and dessert of ice-cream, fruit salad with cream and some...