Our trip back to Rio from Ilha Grande was booked as a "Speed connection" the day before we were to travel. Sounded like a good idea as the brochure promoted a fast looking boat and a late model bus that would take us right to our hostel. In reality it was a much older boat than we arrived on and the bus was a crowded transit bus with no air con! What was worse was that the boat appeared to have left the island without the skipper!! We were about three quarters a...

I sit writing this looking out over the bluest of blue bays imaginable dotted with little jungle clad islands and peppered with tourist boats.Looking up I can see the dense forested mountain we climbed for three and a half hours yesterday to get to the beach of Lopes Mendes. The sounds are of the happy chatter of Brazilian holidaymakers, (for this is a holiday destination for Brazilians, more so than foreigners), children coming home from the nearby school, the f...

How good it is to slip back into the back- packing hostel scene! Rio hostel, in the steep bohemian hillside area of Rio De Janerio is all a hostel should be – quirky accommodation and friendly travellers . Within 5 minutes of arriving we had been invited to go out to eat with a Brazilian girl, Natalia, who wanted company to walk the kilometre or so up the street in the dark to the closest restaurants . As the three of us walked down the steep steps of the h...

Sao Paulo is HUGE. 19 million people call it home, but not us. We are here only because (a) this is the only place Emirates fly to in South America, and (b) after an eleven hour flight Perth to Dubai, a five hour stopover and then a fifteen hour flight, Dubai to Sao Paulo we badly needed a bed! 31 hours is one hell of a transit. Due to our flights being "standby status" there had also been a bit of stress as to whether we would be flying at all and if we would ...

An email from family,Maitland and Margaret Davey, arrives and blows the leaves of the past into the present thought processes. Konnongorring tennis club is having a reunion to celebrate 30 years since the old corrugated iron shed was upgraded to a very usable club rooms. The pavilion was joint purpose used by the tennis, footy, hockey and cricket clubs. Konno at one time also boasted golf and basketball clubs, but alas the only survivor is the tennis club makin...