Most people don't need to watch Disney's animated film of the same name (the one with the annoying, samba-ing parrot) to know that Rio is famous for its beaches, colourful people (and apparently birds) and of course, the Carnaval. But what they didn't tell us in the film is that there's a right time for all this. And the middle of July - Brazil's winter - is not it. During this time of the year - as we found out the hard way - the weather c...

No, it's not a cuss word in Portuguese. It's the name of the rustic little place that we're staying in while in Rio. We booked the place the day before we arrived in Rio, so you can imagine that we were a little pressured into finding a roof over our heads and had no expectations. Later, we realized we're already planning well ahead than "normal" but that's another story.Leaving our hotel in Sao Paulo at 6.30 am, we decided to take a gamble ...

So...Sao Paulo, Brazil. After months of anticipation and planning (OK, we didn't really plan much for this trip other than getting our flights to South America, sorting out a place to stay for the first 2 nights and booking the Machu Picchu hike), we were somewhat...underwhelmed. The truth is - Sao Paulo - the largest city in Brazil and 7th largest in the world, is really like any other big city in a developing country. After about 5 hours of walking aroun...