oi for the last time,

We have actually arrived back home in the UK now but as I wanted to enjoy every last minute of our trip I ended up abandoning the blog a bit.

So the last entry mentioned us arriving at Itacare in the North of brazil. The rickety mini bus journey came to an end which was followed by a crossing across the lake to the actual village of Itacare in a long narrow canoe boat. It very much reminded me of the gondolas in venice as a guy stood at the rear of the boat pushing us along with his long wooden stick. Then with the sun blazing and our heavy backpacks on we set off on a sweaty search for a cheap pousada (whch is what they call accomodation which is between a hostel and hotel). With no luck near the beach, fed up and tired, we set off towards the village, but before we even got there we were approached by a lovely poussada owner. He convinced us to take a look at his place where we ended up staying in a lovely 2 storey room, with mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling above our heads making us feel like princesses. They really were a lovely couple who had a cute little 2 year old daughter and a tiny kitten, who sophie completely fell in love with as she sat on her knee...we even discussed what its name should be!!

Following a delicious breakfast, we ended up on the beach yet again enjoying the waves and sunshine. It was here that Miranda was approached by a smitten brasilian guy (and who can blame him be with legs like hers!) who tried to convince her to stay with him in itacare and that money wouldn't be a problem....thankfully she turned him down and we could take her home with us instead.

The plan for the next day was to get a bus to Ilheus, from where we hoped to then get a night bus to Rio. Unfortunately once there, we discovered there were no more night buses that day and would have to gt one the next morning...so one less day in Rio...noooooo!! So we set off from the bus station in search for a pousada , walking through a rough looking area, with most of the building selling car parts. We finally found a run down pousada, when a car pulled over whose driver was a very friendly american girl who was worried about us walking around this rough area. So she had come to our rescue and took us to the city centre (which was admittedly ALOT nicer!) to a cheap little hostel. Here we spent the day looking around the town, visited their churches and enjoyed a stroll along the beach.

The next day we finally DID get on a night bus to Rio (a 22 hour journey!) and we were happy this would be the last because our thoughts and books did start to run out and our stomachs had had enough of the road side food. Having arrived in rainy Rio our moods didn't really lift because we missed the sunshine. However after some breakfast we set off to explore copacabana beach and the sun came out. That same day we also visited a piece of art which were a set of steps covered in broken tiles and dotted with tiles from all over the world.

Unfortunately the next few days (until we flew home!) were grey and filled with downpours of rain, but we didn't let this stop us enjoy Rio. We shopped till we dropped, explored Rio by bus, went to the cinema, ate acai and took a city tour visiting the famous christ of redeema. We also enjoyed a night out in a house that had been converted to a club where we experienced the bizarre mathod of paying entry and drinks. We were basically given a sheet of paper with a list of all the possible drinks we could order, which the bar staff would then mark, and we didn't pay until the end of the night. A very dangerous method...especially because you can easily lose track of how much ypu are spending AND if you lost it you had to pay about £100...which was especially a problem for us girls as our only means of storing money, ID etc was in our bras. Also on the 2nd night we treated ourselves to one of the meat buffets we had been recommended. This consisted of a delicious buffet of salad, cheeses, sushi etc and then as we sat enjoying this food waiters kept approacing us with succulent pieces of meat on skewers which they then carved off for us. So all in all, despite the weather we still thoroughly enjoy Rio and met some really cool people in the hostel which was more like a family home. Here we often sat around in the 'living room' chatting/reading/cabbaging and used the kitchen to make food, tea etc.

So now I'm sat at home and can honestly say I have had the trip of a lifetime, seen some amazing things, done some brilliant stuff, met some really great people and wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Not only was the destination responsible for such a fantastic experience but so was having the best 2 travel buddies a girl could ask for...having spent every day with them for 9 weeks it is going to be weird not to sleep, eat, shop, travel etc with them!!

If you haven't already been to south america I would say GO GO GO...you will not regret it!!!

So this is officially bye until perhaps my next travels...