YES THAT'S RIGHT!  WE WENT BACK!!!  We just couldn't help ourselves!!!  With five days left to spare before our flight to La Paz in Bolivia (where we were due to start a tour), we thought there would be no better way to round off our time in Brazil, than by going back to where it all started!  Besides, we were flying out of Sao Paulo and we DEFINITELY didn't want to spend any more time there!!  This time we stayed in a hostel near Ipanema beach, ...

Founded at the end of the 17th century, Ouro Preto (Black Gold) was the focal point of the gold rush and Brazil's golden age in the 18th century. With the exhaustion of the gold mines in the 19th century, the city's influence declined but many churches, bridges and fountains remain as a testimony to its past prosperity and the exceptional talent of a Baroque sculptor called Aleijadinho. The hostel we stayed at was up a little hill at the top of the city in a g...

Diamantina was almost exactly as the guide books had described.  A small colonial town comprised of cobbled streets, lined with old colonial buildings and churches, all overlooking a steep-sided rocky valley.  One of the first things we noticed when we arrived was just how steep the place was, as our taxi went almost vertical on its descent into the centre in search of a hostel.  When we arrived, the hostel listed in the guide book didn`t exist!  Luck...

So we arrived back in Campo Grande and booked our 18 hour bus to Brasilia for later that day.  Little did we know that we had booked with a really annoying company that would take a really long time to get there (more than 18 hours) and take a really ROUNDABOUT route too? (Rakhee found this out whilst we were sat in an internet café, where the owner laughed at her when she said the name of the bus company we were travelling with!). After more than 19 hou...

After a long bus ride (yes another one!) to Campo Grande, we rolled out of the bus station and straight across the road into the awaiting hostel, which came complete with a tour agency for trips into The Pantanal (swamp region) and was recommended in our guide book.  After a bit of confusion in which the man tried to get us to leave on the next tour into in 2 hours, we settled for getting some breakfast and agreeing to come back to hear the sales pitch when we...