We've both been surprised by how much we have loved Rio. It's even more stunning than we had thought. It's been very hot and full of other tourists and even that hasn't put us off. We went up to see the statue of Cristo Redentor and it was a scrum of people trying to get photos, but it is so beautiful. Sugarloaf mountain at sunset and was a more mellow experience, watching the sun go down behind Cristo and seeing the city (and him) light up as the sun went down. ...

We are now in Rio staying at a lovely guesthouse in Santa Teresa which is an old colonial district with steep cobbled streets high on a hill. A British couple, Bill and Sue, run the place and have taken us under their wing a bit. They took us out to one of the favelas today to visit a friend of theirs who runs a kind of hostel/art space and used to be a BBC correspondent. He has been heavily involved in cleaning up the favela which was under the control of gangs ...

Weather worse today. Wix is Getting fed up of hearing about how unusual this is and wishes she'd put some money on rain for our week - with odds like that it would have paid for this part of the trip! We took the boat to the beach at Lopes Mendes again today. This beach is gorgeous and has amazing waves and some amazing surfers too and nothing else just the sand, sea and forest. So determined are we to not let the weather spoil things we lay on our sarongs in th...

Ilha Grande is a tropical island off the coast of Brazil which has been designated a nature reserve. No cars are allowed so to get about you hike or go by boat. It's very beautiful , with mountains, lagoons, more than 100 beaches and wildlife. We arrived in paradise to the thunderous pitter patter of the tropical rain - alternatively this is commonly known as the 'Wix effect'. Everytime we plan a sun sea or sand trip, Uluru, grand canyon, palm cove, piña del r...

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all the comments and messages, especially syds... Woof to you too sweetie, we miss you. Sorry about the photos, we can't up load anywhere from my camera... Serves me right for having so much memory! Anyway we are recycling the same few we managed to up load at the beginning of the trip! When I get back I'll to a quick up date album and post it. I had a great birthday, nice to log on and have messages from sisters, kara and mum a...