Hola Piglet! This one's just for you.

Thanks for being a fan of my blog. Hope you like it; are you following my route on your map? Have a look at Brazil - I'm on an island called Ilha Grande now, its near to Rio De Janeiro if you look just slightly South. Pop a sticker on there!

The Brazilians call this place Ilha Gran-jay, not Grond-day like we do. I'm trying to learn Portuguese but its harder than Spanish, and their accents are quite strong. More practice needed! How is your Spanish coming along?

It's lovely here - lots of nice beaches, palm trees and really cute doggies that smile! It's very hot, so they keep their mouths open to keep their tongues cool, and it makes them look as though they're smiling - so cute! How are Tara, Monty and Pixie? Is she still being very naughty? I hope she's staying off my bed, the little monkey!

Today I've been to the beach; the sand there isn't fluffy and fine like in Thailand, the grains are bigger and more coarse.. but it's much easier to brush off this way! The water is warm to swim in, and there are lots of boats by the beach - including an ENORMOUS cruise liner that appeared this morning. Brazilians love the beach - the men wear the funniest trunks you've ever seen, and they have really silly hair-cuts... short on the sides, long at the back and sort of pointy and stuck-up at the front! Everyone here is obsessed with football, even the little tiny children play it on the streets. Oh, and the dancing - Brazilians love to dance. I saw some performers on the street doing acrobatics in a dance show - I took a video on my camera so I'll try to upload it to facebook so you can see. I'm going to try to learn to samba when I get to Rio.

Also on the island I've seen some tiny, colourful birds - yesterday a hummingbird was fluttering around me, tiny black-and-coloured butterflies, and the odd ginger cat! Today I was sunbathing under a tree that has a short, stout trunk, very long branches and big, bright green leaves the shape of teardrops. Do you think you can find out what kind of tree it is?

The food here is nice, there's lots of sugary things - they have big carts on the street selling cakes - every kind of cake you can imagine, like chocolate gateaux, lemon cake, banana bread, chocolate truffles, passionfruit tart - at night people line up to choose one as a snack. Brazilians eat a lot of pizza too, yum yum, but I even I can't eat that everyday so yesterday I had a traditional Brazilian meal of grilled chicken, rice, salad and black beans in a sort of sauce - it was really nice. Oh, and a passionfruit cake for pudding! Ooh, and the fruit is really nice - for my breakfast today I had pineapple, mango, papaya (the Australians I'm with call it Paw-paw, I have no idea why!) and... cake! Yes, cake - told you they like sweet things. Often people will have ham and cheese on bread for breakfast too... I like breakfasts here :)

Tomorrow I'm going on a boat trip (another boat!) to a place called Lopez Mendes, its meant to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Rio. It's on the other side of this island, but to get to it you can either trek through the jungle (there are snakes!) or take the boat so I went with the nicer option. Will take photos so you can see.

Sending you lots of cuddles and looking forward to your next message. Is it Lady Gaga's birthday yet? I hope she got her card. I'll pick up your Havianas in Rio, haven't seen any pink ones in the right size yet - but there'll be lots to choose from there. Love you! More more more more more....

Your Becca xx