Bula from Fiji! Its a cold day today in Fiji, Im sat in my cardigan on our veranda watching the waves crash on the shore. (Although we experienced the deep freeze over our ten days at home, cold for us is currently around 16'C!) The two twelve hour flights to Fiji didnt seem to take too long as we were used to the long journeys in South America. We left the UK on December the 28th and arrived in Fiji on New Years Eve ready for celebrations. We grabbed a shower at...

Brazil has some of the worlds best beaches, and some of the Brazils best beaches are in Ilha Grande.It is Brazil's third largest island and is pretty close to Rio de Janeiro. We decided to spend a week on the island, relaxing, tanning and spending as little money as possible. The bus from Sao Paulo to Angra dos Reis took longer than expected, but we managed to get the last ferry across. Thankfully it was the last long South American bus journey! (We've been on...

We hadn't planned on visiting Sao Paulo, but we were unable connecting bus and ferry to the island we were heading to. We didn't do or see an awful lot. It's Brazil's largest city and we were surrounded by city buildings. Across the road from the bus station, we found a reasonably priced hotel for the night. I dragged Si round a nearby shopping centre to grab some havainas to replace my broken ones. (The cheapest place is apparently in Rio, so I'll wait to buy m...

Planning to spend most our days at the falls, we opted for the cheapest hostel. Big mistake. It was so disgusting. They had six dogs that covered everything from the sofa to breakfast in their hair!! The bathroom was cleaned once every three days, and as toilet paper couldn't be flushed, it stank!! The owners were also rude, Si lost his flipflops and found the owner walking about in them! Thankfully, our day trips to the waterfall were an awesome distraction. ...

Another short bus ride took us to Punta del Esta, a small, upmarket beach town popular with locals. We stayed near the town for the first night and spent a day exploring the area. On the beach a giant concrete hand rises out of the sand. Its kinda arty but we don't know why its there. The beach was average and there were a few people about. We followed the beach round and watched the surfers for a while. The town consists of one main street of shops. Nothing over...