Wow!! What an eventful 11 days!! Lets go back to the beginning! So glad we flew out of Heathrow on Thursday and not Friday as I think we would still be sat in Heathrow airport due to the snow!! In Frankfurt they had to de-ice the plane before we left, which was reassuring!!! When we got to Rio airport our luggage was the LAST two pieces to come through the conveyor belt - nervous times!!!

Rio de Janeiro

What an amazing city!! We stayed in the Leblon district, one block from Leblon beach. A very nice area with lots of shops and restaurants one block away from the hostel we were staying at. An apartment here costs more than £1 million pounds!!

Friday 18th Jan: Checked in to the hostel and wandered to the beach and around Leblon district. Met 2 English guys at our hostel from Hertford!! Small world!!

Saturday 19th: Today we walked along Leblon & Ipanema beach which were lovely and very safe... full of people surfing, people playing beach volleyball, men and women walking around in swimwear 2 sizes too small for them (there I was in my tshirt and board shorts haha) and the beach sellers with sarongs, hats, ice lollies, drinks, food and bracelets. We then arrived at the Copacabana and... It wasn't great. Felt unsafe straight away, beach was full of rubbish and was aware of my surroundings!! We walked around Copacabana town and back through Ipanema and Leblon high streets. There was a massive thunder and lightening storm in the evening!!

Sunday 20th: Today we walked around the lagoona (7km), which was very pretty, with good views of Christ and the surrounding mountains! Was a hot sunny day when we started.. And then the rain came and we got drenched... And then the sun came back out!! Spent the rest of the day at the beach, bought a coconut and sat on Ipanema drinking it. Nice!!!

Monday 21st: In the morning we walked along Ipanema beach, I bought a sarong from the beach sellers. In the afternoon we went on a city tour; first stop Christ the Redeemer (Corcovado) - the day before it was shut due to a fallen tree in the road so very lucky to get up to see him, was very misty, so much that sometimes you couldn't see him even though we were 10 metres away. Wow what an experience - he is HUGE!!!! Started to rain heavily so people left... Meaning we got some good photos with no-one else in them... A bit (alot) of rain never stops us!! Next stop was Santa Teresa and onto where the carnival is being held - saw some cool costumes up close. We then moved onto Lapa, where the famous 'Escadaria Selaron' steps are found, every step is tiled in bright colours. Our last stop was Pao de Acucas - Sugar Loaf Mountain. The views from the top were incredible, you could see for miles, with the mist rolling on the tops of the surrounding mountains.

Tuesday 22nd: This morning we visited one of the biggest favelas in Rio - 'Little Farm'. Was much more developed than I thought it would be, electricity, running water, underground sewage, sky tv and Internet. Was very interesting to hear about the history of the favelas, about gang lords, police infiltrating the gangs and the history of 'little farms' development (started in 1992 by a charity). Later on in the trip we were talking to an American who visited a different favela and said they had no sewage system, no tv's, no Internet. We think we were taken to the most developed favela in Rio, which perhaps gave us the wrong impression of the general favela living conditions!! For the rest of the day we spent the last few hours at Leblon beach and packed for the following day.

Overall: I love Rio!!! So much to see and do. Ipanema and Leblon beaches were just extraordinary, exactly what I imagined Rio to be like. The Copacabana was not the place to be, even though everyone associates Rio with Copa!! The different districts are very different, with Santa Teresa and Lapa having small narrow cobbled streets with old buildings, whilst Copa, Ipanema & Leblon had wide 3 lane tarmac streets with high rises and new buildings. The drivers were insane!!! Disregarding every rule on the road, swerve in and out of cars, make a 2 lane street into a 3 lane street and hoot hoot hoot for no reason!! I would definitely go back to Rio!!

Parati

We arrived on Wednesday after a great bus journey, all the buses recline basically until you are lying down and a foot rest comes down!! So comfy!!

Wednesday 23rd: After arriving in Parati and checking in, we walked along the beach across the road from the hostel. The surroundings were beautiful, tree lined mountains in every direction.

Thursday 24th: Visited the beautiful historic centre of Parati, cobbled streets, old buildings, all painted white with colourful doors and window sills. Mixture of shops and homes, the shops sold the same things!! Visited the pier, full of small colourful boats ranging to large "pirate" ships with the sails and all. Did my first batch of hand washing in the afternoon - I am never moaning about a washing machine again...

Friday 25th: Today we went on a boat tour around Parati bay, which is full of small little islands and deserted beaches. Was really nice to get out into the sea and visit some beautiful places. We had 2 snorkelling stops and 2 beach stops. Was a very hot day so glad to be able to cool off in the sea!! Finished the night by having a freshly made pineapple juice sitting on the beach over looking the sea. Had to keep reminding ourselves where we were!!!

Saturday 26th: We went for a canoe in the sea, to the island near our beach, was very choppy and nearly capsized several times haha!!! Spent the rest of the day packing and had dinner with an American from our room.

Overall: Parati was so tranquil and chilled compared to Rio, with a mixture of tourists and locals. The boat trip was a great way to experience the other side of Parati... The deserted islands scattered around the bay area. Our hostel wasn't as great compared to the Rio one but was ok.

Next stop: Foz de Iguazu

Our journey to foz started so well, the bus was on time and very nice. And then we hit the traffic, all 8 hours of it!! We were meant to arrive in São Paulo at 3:30pm with our connecting bus to Foz leaving at 6:30pm. At 9:30pm our bus from Parati arrived into São Paulo. Luckily 2 people from our bus had to get the metro (Imagine the tube without a map) to where we were going so we followed them, they were so nice, missing their stop to take us to where we needed to be to find the bus terminal! Our company didn't have any more buses leaving that night, but one company had one more bus departing, so we bought a new ticket and we are on our way to foz. Very glad I had Loretta with me - would have been awful on our own!!!

Now for the Iguazu Falls and then onto the Pantanal!! Write soon xxx