CorumbaWe had to stay 1 night in Corumba and wait for the next day to cross the border and catch the death train to Santa Cruz Bolivia. We crossed the border at about 11am knowing that the border shuts from 12 till 2pm and we didn't want to miss out on getting a ticket. There are three trains you can take which operate on various days. There is the most expensive and comfortable one and the medium price one which operate on alternate days and then the death t...

We flew from Rio to Salvador. This was a cheaper option as the bus would take 20 hours more and cost roughly the same price. We even treated ourselves to an airport pick up which was nice as we arrived very late at night. We stayed at Barra Guest House for the first 4 nights, this hostel was nice but about $60US for the both of us. We met heaps of cool people here and ended up spending the rest of Carnaval with them. The first day we went to the local beach and ...

We checked in the Stand Fast hostel which was a new hostel only opened 4 months ago. You could tell it was beautiful and only $20US each a night. The owner Cloud took us out the first night to a hostel in a safe favela called the Maze, and it really was a maze finding your way around. There were stairs and rooms everywhere. On the first Monday of the month they have a jazz night up there. This hostel has amazing views of Rio and it was a great experience to see o...

It was time to move on again to Ilha Grande, it was a bit of a mission to get there. We were a little hung over and had to sit on a local bus for about 2 hours with all our stuff. It was totally packed and then we had to find a boat to take us to the island. We finally found this beautiful old style wooden yacht which was going over so we all jumped in and an hour later we had arrived. We found really good accommodation when we got there. Everyone was saying you ...

We stayed in Paraty for 3 nights at Che Lagarto Hostel which was one of the better Che Legato's that we have stayed at. The first night we had arranged to catch up with Wilma and Gan a couple from Holland on their 40th wedding anniversary who we had met on Ilha do Mel. So we went looking for a restaurant and finally picked one that was right in the middle of the square which is always a mistake. Our meals were pretty average but quite expensive. It was good s...