So Ihla grande....... After an early start in rio and a reasonably long bus journey we arrived in Angra dos Reis to glorious sunshine! The only problem with such heat was the fact that we had to walk for 20mins with our backpacks to catch the ferry out to Ilha Grande. Very sweaty work. Once we eventually got on the ferry Rory realised he had left the guide book in the bank in town. After some very rudimentary portuguese and a nervous wait as I sat on the boat and...

Been away from a computer for a few days so have some catching up to do on this thing! On sunday we had the most amazing experience at the football! A full house at the biggest stadium in Brazil, the Maracana, for the replay of the final of the state championship between Flamengo and Botafogo with the first game tied 2-2. As you can imagine the atmosphere was electric with flares, huge flags and banners, chanting and fireworks! The game itself was fairly poor unt...

Wow what an amazing 24hours. Having spent most of yesterday on the beach Rory and I decided to go in search on the famous Rio nightlife. No sooner than we got off the bus w bumped into some english people on gap years, which is a total rarity out here for some reason which was awesome. We then got interviewed by some woman with a TV crew which was quite funny and I guess means we may turn up on Brazilian TV at some point but who knows. We then went to one of the ...

Quite a busy few days! On tuesday we did the favela tour in the morning which was totally amazing! We arrived at the bottom of the hill where the favela was and had to take a motorcycle taxi up to the top which was quite a white knuckle ride to say the least! Then to get into the favela's main street we had to walk past a drug dealer holding an assault rifle although we were assured that this was totally safe as the tour company has a deal with them. Once in the ...

Wow what a crazy first day. The flight was actually OK and I managed to get a lot of sleep. Calamity Rory started the tour off in worrying fashion by hitting his head on the check in desk and then trapping his finger in the tv on the plane. On arrival the bad omens just kept on rolling as the rain started to pour in the taxi on the way into the city. It didn't stop there ........ the taxi driver was lost and eventually claimed the hostel no longer existed but he ...