The day after the football match was glorious sunshine so the four of us spent the day on Ipanema beach - along with thousands of others. The fashion in Brazil on the beach is to wear as little as possible - male or female, overweight or toned, it doesn't matter. So what if youre pushing fifty and you've got massive cellulite infested legs? You want them tanned so get them out there. You can people watch on Brazilian beaches and see all spectrums of people, wear...

Brazil is famous for it's football and one of the must see things to do in Brazil was catch a game. Myself & Maire decided to catch a local derby, between Flamengo and Fluminense. Flamingo are one of the most widely supported teams in the world, with massive support in most parts of the city. But all teams have a passionate fan base, like nothing I've ever experiences before. Both teams were level in the league, joint on points at 5th and 6th place, with onl...

Our next stop upon leaving Sao Paulo was Ilha Grande - and what a place! Getting there was no picnic though. Poor admin work meant we arrived into the port town of Angra dos Reis at midnight, well after any ferries had stopped for the night, so had to get a cheapy hotel near the dock for the first ferry out. But when got there it was hard to removed the smile from our faces! Ilha Grande is an island, about an hour off the coast, and about two hours bus ride sout...

Santa Cruz was a nice place. Its got a nice plaza, some good places to eat and good weather but not much in the way of activities. Similarly to Potosi, we could have happily stayed there for an extra day or two, just to chill out, but we were on the move after one night. Plus, we'd just spent four days chilling out in Sucre! Also, compared to what we knew was ahead in terms of expense, we may never have left Bolivia. But on last Tuesday we left, getting on board ...

Population: 199 million Area: 8.5 million square km (101 times bigger than Ireland) Currency: Real (€0.43) Timezone: varies from GMT -4 to -6 hours Capital: Brasilia Population of Brasilia: 2.5 million Biggest City: Sao Paulo Population of Sao Paulo: 19 million