Met my tour group and there are 15 of us. 9 girls and 6 guys ranging from 18 to 32 comprising English(Tom, Dove), Welsh (Sally), Scottish (Tina, Frazer and Mhairi), German(Julia), Australian (Julia), American (Stacey), New Zealand (Damian, Jonathan and Mark) Kenyan (Kunal) and Malaysian (Hooi). All lovely and we have clicked really well. Christian is our tour leader. He is Chilean, a bit of a hippy and loves to party!!

We went to a buffet style restaurant on our first night where you pay for the food according to its weight. Given the rain we stayed local and had a few drinks on Copacabana beach.

Day 4: We leave early in the rain and make our way to Ilha Grande, a tropical island four hours (by bus and boat) south of Rio. Lovely Island and even nicer hotel. We shared chalets, each with their own hammock and spread out through a rain forest setting. There are no roads on the island and therefore no cars. The island once housed Brazil's most dangerous criminals in a large prison on the island. The prison was closed in 1994 and the islands main revenue now comes from tourism. The island introduced me to Acai (a berry mixture with granola. Acai is only found in the Amazon jungle) and caipirinhas (lime based cocktails). I'm feeling the effects of one too many cocktails as I write this! Night one on the island Christian gave us a master class in caipirinha making. Of course I partook in both the cocktail making and the tasting. Between the cocktails and UK's top 40 being blasted out on Marks speakers, it was a great way to get to know everyone.

Day 5: The rain is gone and the sun makes an appearance. We hike one hour to a black beach on the other side of the island. As is customary I feel invincible to the suns rays. The sun wins every time. A red burning glow currently emanates from the front half of my body. No amount of aloe vera is soothing my pain. Dinner is lasagne and more caipirinhas.

Day 6. More hiking and more beach time. This time covered up. Dinner is a fantastic BBQ, all you can eat steak, chicken, sausage, salads. And all you can drink caipirinhas. I think I was too greedy on the all you can drink. Although unlike Stacey and Tina, I refrained from drinking the liquor direct from the bottle. Music tonight was my kind of music. Five remix, backstreet boys, even a bit of SClub thrown in. Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams made an appearance. You can imagine the scene. Too many cocktails, everyone trying to outdo the next on the signing stakes. Good night!