Hello again, I have spent the last 5 days in Ilha Grande which is a tropical island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. I am now travelling with 3 Danish guys who I met when they were getting arrested by corrupt police officers in Rio! We made a two hour bus journey from Rio to the port town of Angra Dos Reis. From here we missed the last tourist boat so, along with a couple of other gringos, managed to talk a local fisherman into taking us on the two hour boat trip to the island. We spent most days on a beach called Lopes Mendes where the waves must have been close to 10 foot tall. We hired bodyboards and lapped up the paradise that is having a whole island with only about 1,000 people on it! Our hostel was run by a crazy woman who by the last day had decided to let us pay for 3 nights when we had stayed for 5 nights! She also let us off with the massive bar bill that we had racked up! The only words she ever said were 'my friend' and 'dollar'. I got a massive discount because I paid in dollars! The island had no bank so we had to bargain like hell all the time! Next up, Florianopolis, a beach resort on he mainland which is about 800 miles south west of Rio.