rasil was probably the country I knew most about before heading away. As In I actually knew people from Brasil, everybody knows about the infamous Rio beaches and sights. The fact that Sao Paulo (SP) is unbelievably huge with hundreds of restaurants, museums and a kicking nightlife. Personally, the bigger and crazier the city the more i love it. In short, I was really excited about getting here.

Importantly, Maire had just flown in and Sean was back from his trip to Argie so we had a nice little group to go explore this awesome country.

We were staying in the lovely Bela Vista area of SP. Just up the road was the Jardins area famed for great restaurants. On the other side was Av Agusta where there are loads of things going on at night to keep you entertained till the sun comes up! It's known as an alternative place and it certainly was - regular bars, gays bars, nightclubs, drug dealers, hookers and fast food joints all line the one street.

One annoying thing about going out in Brasil is the use of 'consumption cards'. Basically you register at the front door and you are given this charge card which records all the drinks you order at the bar. At the end of the night you queue up and pay the balance. I see the benefit of not having to mess with money at the bar but I don't appreciate the fright I get when I'm handed the tab on the way out.

Brasil is quite expensive, just less than Dublin I reckon. However bear in mind that I had just come from Bolivia so it takes getting used to! In Bolivia hostels were about €3 a night now they are about €17, lunch was about €3/4 now it's €12! As a result people just generally get some bottles of beer and hang out on the street in front of the bars. It's a good way of keeping the consumption card balances low.

We did a walking tour of centro SP (Marie was our informative guide) which was great as we got in all the highlights of the city. We passed by the famous Teatro Municipal, Edificio Italia and the financial district to name a few. We missed on a few things due to time constraints but I certainly left Sao Paulo with good feel for the city.

Ilha Grande was the next stop and even though it's a bit troublesome to get there it is definitely worth it. Of course it would have helped if we researched the commute before setting out. We got the bus journey times wrong leaving us to get into the port town of Angra dos Reis at about one am when cleary no ferries are running to the island. D'oh!

The island is known for it's 102 beaches and the fact that there is only one small village with no cars on the island either. One of the highlights of the island is taking a tour of the blue lagoon. Our yacht was superb compared to other trips that I have been on. Large, clean, places for sunbathing and places for diving off. I am not to sure if there is actually a blue lagoon but I was not that fussed. The scenery and other beaches on the trip distracted me too much. Back at the hostel that evening and it was time for a BBQ and some drinks. As usual it ended up with a bonfire on the beach with some great chat. Thankfully no one ended up ruining it by playing guitar and squaking renditions of some Oasis songs. It was time to move on again, this time to Rio baby - double boom!