David: Finally have time to write up about Paraty since its been raining and we are leaving Iguazu this evening anyway... We arrived in Paraty from Ilha grande and went down to the hostel. Both of us were extremely hungry and even more freaked out about this town. At first impression, at least to a tired hungry pair of me and regina, this place was a bit of a mind boggle. We walked down towards the old town where our hostel was, the streets are lined with giant...

David:We arrive in Ilha Grande at about three. We dock up and head down the beach to our hostel, the Lizzard Hotel or Che Lagarto Hostel. It is at the end of the beach over looking the bay. The bay itself is full of small fishing boats and speedboats. The surrounding area is all jungle, and all hilly.... its simply not real and we keep looking around and rubbing our eyes wondering what is really going on (was there something funny in our breakfast????). We spend ...

David:Alas today we must leave beautiful Rio... with heavy hearts as we both feel we could stay here for longer....Anyway, the now five of us have worked out that there are about 4 buses that go from the main street in Botafogo to the bus station. From what I have checked online, I think they all start and end at the station and just happen to pass our street.... they kinda go all over the place in between. We give ourselves plenty of time to get to the main stat...

David: Bit behind schedule since we have been on a tropical island for the last few days and I didn´t feel like going writing... Anyway, third day in Rio we decided we should spend a day at the beach. Had the usual breakfast (ham and cheese rolls and fruit) and headed off down to Ipanema on the Subway (very safe and easy to use btw) The beach is about 500metres from the subway station so we grabbed some water in a shop and off we went. Since it was a thursday...

David: Quick blog for yesterday... Went on a tour of Rio. We drove around collecting people before heading off to the Tijuca Forest. This is the largest urban forest in the world would ya believe!!! In the forest we visited a waterfall that used to provide water for the centre of Rio but now it just runs through to Ipanema beach. After this we drove on to the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The views from here were absolutely fabulous. You could see every inch o...