I arrive in in Rio at 9:30am and successfully manage to get a cab without getting ripped off to the hostel in Ipanema, thank you James for the recommendation - the safest place in Rio, which was brilliant for me, as I was beginning to have the same freak out I had when I arrived in Bangkok, but at least I didn't feel unsafe. I don't think i have been been in such a fast taxi ever!!! My hostel was like a little house in a gated off area in a quiet road, it was ve...

Sorry guys bumper edition over the next few days, hopefully, the stupid thing is I am writing the Contiki trip blog whilst I am on the Gadventures tour in Brazil! Yeah, a bit behind……again!!! Anyway, here goes…..the last Contiki instalment! I have to say I have actually felt quite emotional whilst writing these up, bit sad I know but hey, it was a pretty awesome 26 days with a group of fantastic people, who I have to say made the trip for me. I am alrea...

We arrived in Cocoa Beach mid afternoon and immediately hit the beach after catching up with the olds over Skype, who commented I sounded better and didn't look as rough as the last time they spoke to me, that may well have been straight after vegas or the New Orleans/Memphis blur. Anyway, swimmers on it was beach time, my god its hot here, so it was literally a quick dip in the pretty wavey sea and then back to the pool at the hotel. Then it was washing……....

Sorry guys, I am massively behind in these....again! So having left the mayhem of Memphis and New Orleans, we limped our way to Panama, completely partied out……well I was anyway. On route we stop in Alabama and stop at the war ship there and have a bit of a wander around. From here we make our way into the sunshine state of florida. We arrive at Panama City Beach, the hotel this time is not as nice as the others but the view from my balcony is straight ont...

So having left the madness of karaoke and beer towers behind in Texas, it was onto an early bus……yay……okay, I definitely wasn't saying yay, it was more like, oh god. It was time to hit Memphis for what I have been looking forward to for ages - live bands and blues music! We made our journey on the party bus via Texarkana and did the touristy photo thing, one foot in Texas and one in Arkansas. We stopped at Little Rock where we learnt a lot about the C...