We didn?t get eaten - too much! We?ve just left the Pantanal and one of the most amazing few days ever! A guy who ran the last hostel we stayed in used to work for a campany called Ecological Expeditions which organises tours right into the heart of the Pantanal. So off we went to meet our group and guide: 3 people from Isreal, 1 from Germany and our guide, Mario aka Ace Ventura! We were taken to the middle of nowhere to a small camp in the Pantanal where we slep...

Well we survived the 15 hour bus journey to Foz Do Iguacu (or Foz as we?ve been calling it). It went surprising quickly - we started at 2 in the afternoon and arrived at 5 in the morning although we didn?t get much sleep. We saw a really fierce lightening storm in the distance at one point which lit up the sky for miles around. It was amazing and kept us entertained for a while - not when we had to drive through it though, our eyes began to hurt from the severe f...

We got our first long-distance bus from Rio to Angra dos Reis, then caught a boat to Ilha Grande. And what a boat it was! A cross between an old fishing boat and a passenger boat, we lay on the deck while sailing past tropical islands and mountain peaks. We didn?t really know what to expect of the island but all our ideas of the place were exceeded and more! It was like a perfect paradise that didn?t seem real. We stayed in an artist?s pousada with our own room a...

We spent a few days on Ilha Grande, had pretty much as perfect a day as you can get, took a boat to what they call the best beach in the world (Lopes mendes) which included a 20min trek through the tropical rainforest (which I did barefoot like a true Brazilian) The beach was amazing, the sea was perfect and I didn?t even get sunburnt. After three days on paradise island we headed off back to mainland (or so we thought) to catch the bus to Sao Paulo...we however ...

We spent our last few days in Rio seeing more of the sights and lazing on the beach. I had a great birthday (thanks for all the messages)! We went up to Corcovoda(Christ the Redeemer) in a crazy taxi ride - don?t they know what side of the road they?re supposed to drive on?! The views over Rio were stunning. Glad we went in the day as we did Sugar Loaf during the evening so this gave a very different perspective. We also went for a walk along Capacabana and met a...