17/5/09 Today we moved on to Foz do Iguaçu, the gateway town to the Iguaçu Falls. First of all we had a five hour trip to Sao Paulo in a private minibus, and then after a couple of hours' wait at the bus station there, we had a 17 hour journey in a public bus to Foz do Iguaçu. I was glad we had to change buses at Sao Paulo, because it's the biggest city in South America and this meant we got to get a glimpse of its sheer enormity. We did get a good view, actua...

15/5/09 We got the 9 o'clock boat from Ilha Grande to the port of Angra dos Reis, where we caught a local bus to Paraty. We had fantastic views on the way, because we spent a lot of time hugging the coast and as a result we passed lots of lovely beaches - some small, isolated, others busier and longer. With the sea on our left and forested mountains on our right, it was beautiful. We arrived mid afternoon, and the rest of the afternoon and the evening was spent h...

13/5/09 After breakfast our group all piled into a minibus, and after about two hours we arrived at a tiny port where we got our boat over to Ilha Grande. This was a 40 minute journey, and it reminded me of the Yasawas, Fiji and the Whitsundays, Australia, because we passed lots of small forested islands on the way. I didn't see any flying fish this time, though, and the sea was deeper than the Yasawas lagoons. It was just as hot and sunny, though! When we arrive...

12/5/09 We checked out of the Vila Carioca hostel and took a taxi to the Hotel Bandeirantes, Copacabana, where our tour group was due to meet up and we would stay our first night. When we arrived there were a couple of sheets of A4 stuck on the wall in the reception lobby, informing us that there would be a welcome meeting in the lounge at 7pm where we would all be introduced to each other and a lot of information given out. Reception gave us a form each which we...

9/5/09 Today we had a lie in while we decided what we wanted to do for the rest of the day... We spent so long that we realised it was now too late to walk into Centro because once we'd walked there we wouldn't have long before we'd have to come back again, so in the end we wwalked down to Leme. This is really just part of Copacabana beach; the portion right at the side, on the other end to Copacabana Fort. It was around 30 degrees again. There's a fort here too...