Vern: The last two days have had their frustrations. The tram car to the mountain suburb of Santa Theresa was a treat - rattling over the arc of a disused aqueduct in an over-capacity 1920s mode of transport was wonderfully retro - but the 'Colonial gem' we were expecting was riddled with graffiti and the museum we'd planned to see was closed. On a side note, a lot of the graffiti in Rio is amazing and being a big fan of the printed T-shirt, I was assessing each ...

Andrea: I'm here in the lobby of our hotel getting ready for round...I don't know what round, but getting ready to walk the streets again up to the Sambodromo in the hopes of seeing some more great floats and costumes for free. Tonight and tomorrow are the Grupo Especials performing so it promises to be even more over the top than last night. Hopefully our Sambodromo voyage tonight will go off without a hitch as the rest of the day has been full of queues and mi...

Vern: "Grrringooo!" shouted a shirtless man in a blue straw hat tapping me on the shoulder. We'd been found out, at our third street party of the day. Wearing our merino wool t-shirts and our all-terrain trainers, we'd done quite well so far to infiltrate the 40th Rio Carnival. Everyone else was in fancy dress, in masks and in drag so we were in fact the most conspicuous. There are many other foreigners but this is definitely a Brazilian festival for Brazilian pe...

Andrea: Christ the Redeemer - wonder of the world #1 in our trip - tick! We ascended the mountain that towers above Rio on a tram car through the jungle, passed an abandoned mansion and rattled onward to vistas of Rio, its bay and its favelas. Unfortunately the blue sky from sea level, which tempted us up the mountain, was partly cloudy by the time we got 3600 feet up to the statue. So the tourists played the waiting game. Most lying on the floor to take a photo ...

Vern: We made our way from our island-style hostel, Che Legarto in Ipanema, to our no-style hotel, in Centro (downtown). Navigating public transport was a cinch and Andrea's spanglisheguese is getting us successfully through most transactions. Centro is bustling, like the business district of most major cities, and there are hundreds of people walking in every direction. We haven't figured out the traffic lights yet which seem to go green or red together on three...