We arrived in buenos aires after the most horrific bus journey across the border to Argentina. No water, no stops, a severely vibrating bus and and engine that screamed continuoisly.The only reprieve we received on arriving to BA was a hot breakfast with eggs and bacon and not a piece of cake in sight! Ba was a delight, full of interesting streets and neighbourhoods with amazing shops and cafes. Little streets of brightly coloured houses backing onto antique sho...

So after our amazing trip to the island paradise of ilha grande we spent another couple of days on the rio coast at the idillic colonial town of paraty. The most energetic trip we had was to a natural water slide. It was a twenty foot drop into freezing water and such an adrenaline rush! Even managing to negotiate the public transport there and back!! Paraty was a pretty town with cobbled streets you could break an ankle easily and fabulous painted houses. It's ...

Took ourselves off to the coast after a farewell to Kevin and Claire, and one too many free caiphirinas. We took our first of many buses down the coast a few hours to a little town of minimal appeal and attraction. We paid a very small fee and took the local rusty ferry across the bay to the beautiful ilha grande. The ferry was piled high with people, shopping and the odd electrical good! We were more than pleasantly surprised to arrive at the island with out hav...

Our grand intentions of reading the guidebooks on the plane, planning our route, doing our budget and basically everything we should have done before we left the UK went out the window. After 11 hours of films, rubbish airplane food and unbelievably rude French women we arrived tired and nervous! Our first taste of rio was, in retrospect appropriate. Our first taxi ride didn't do much to calm our nerves, he apparently had never heard of junctions, lanes or speed...

It's official no turning back now, spent a lovely couple of days with dad and Annie before flying off ...