February 11th - February 27th

Martin and I met up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after a marathon journey from Jamaica. Martin unexpectedly had a brief stop of in Brasilia, he was not impressed, in fact he was fuming. His journey time had increased from 24 hours to 32 hours thanks to electronic problems on the planes forcing a premature landing. I meanwhile was strolling on Copacabana beach in the 37 degrees heat waiting for boyo to arrive. After finally arriving, we were both absolutely shattered and spent that day relaxing.

The next day, we woke expecting the glorious weather that had greeted our arrival the previous day except it was overcast, raining and a moderate 22degrees. Not happy. In fact the next three days would remain similar with slight improvements every day thereafter. During these days of mixed weather we kept ourselves entertained by walking to Sugar Loaf mountain which was incredible. Although visibility at the summit was patchy it was still incredible. The view is breath taking. There is also lots of wild life and trails to explore. Martin and I decided it would be cool to see some of this Amazonian like vegetation that was present at both the first and second mountain. We saw some wild monkeys and Martins eagle eye spotted this snake chilling by the steps. It was only small but we could hear the hiss from a distance and later we found out this little baby was venomous. We also spent a good hour on this secluded beach next to sugar loaf writing messages in the sand to loved ones. It was kind of gay but we had a good laugh.

We decided that we needed a change of hostels because we found mellow yellow in Copacabana to be absolutely average. So we moved on to Ipanema beach which was a so much better environment and the hostel was more like a 3 star hotel. We instantly made loads of friends whom that night took us to Lapa to the infamous street party. Boy was this place random. There is thousands of people just hanging out on the streets, drinking, dancing and enjoying Brazils amazing culture. Unfortunately some locals do their utmost to spoil this amazing place by trying to rob you. We had been warned about this and advised to only take cash, no wallet or camera. Thank god we listened because I most certainly would not have either now. I was subjected to two separate attacks. The first, there were two men working in tandem and one managed to steal 5 Real (1 pound 50) from my pocket. However, I realised and I stole it back from him.5 real or 5000 Real, same principle in my eyes. However, he had the last laugh because as I walked away, he did this crazy kung fu kick to my head. I was drunk so it didn't hurt that much. Martin was no where to be seen, probably creating some shapes somewhere. The next attack was from four local kids whom tried to get in my pockets as I was taking a piss. Again they escaped empty handed and I did not hesitate in attempting to hose them down. Random night but very fun. Martin certainly had a good one… he arrived back at the hostel at 10 am, steaming drunk.

We headed to a valentines day street party the next day on Ipanema beach. We were starting to realise that Brazilians love a street party. The next day we woke up and the sun had finally put his hat on and the weather was again `´El Scorchio.`` That afternoon we headed to the famous Maracana, Brazils national stadium to watch a classic local derby, Flamengo v Botofogo. The game was slow paced and it was sub standard football but the atmosphere was most certainly the best we have ever experienced at any sporting event. They just go crazy throughout the whole day. The game finished 1...1with Flamengo scoring in the last minute. We were in the Flamengo end and it was such a perfect finish to what had already been a great experience. That night we moved hostels, ironically into Botofogo. At night we headed to the Sambadrome for a pre carnival rehearsal party. We got to party down the Sambadrome once the parade had finished. It was so cool.

The following day we headed up to Corcovada Mountain to see Christ the Redeemer, a must if you are going to Rio. It was a glorious day and visibility was perfect, awesome pictures.

The next few days were spent lounging on the beaches working on our tans. Well Martin, was working on his burns. Ipanema beach was a particular favourite of ours. After spending 8 amazing days in Rio we reluctantly decided we had to move south and so we stopped at an old colonial town named Paraty four hours away.

We stopped here for two nights. The highlights were that we headed of to a remote fisherman's beach. In order to get there we had to trek through the Jungle for one hour. The walk was amazing and the beach itself was so secluded and it must be the best beach we have both been on. The sea was perfect for swimming and we also spent a good few hours snorkelling. We then took a short boat journey to a place called Trinidada where we had some bad boy food. I destroyed a shrimp risotto and Martin was on cloud cuckoo with his seafood spaghetti. That night was the first night of the Brazilian carnival and so a lot of us from the hostel headed into town for another street party.

The next day we headed by bus to a place called Sao Luiz do Paraitinga where we would meet one of my friends, Thais, whom I met in America when working at summer camp. We would spend carnival here. It was a struggle to find them and god knows how we did but with a lot of good luck, we did. We simply arrived at the bus station to find hundreds of thousands of people partying in the streets. To put it into perspective, this place is a small town with 5,000 residents but during carnival, college students from all over flock here. All we knew was that my friend was staying at campsite Bicho D´agua. This was like finding a needle in a haystack given the amount of people here. We stood out massively as well. However, as we tried to get our bearings we probably witnessed the single most funniest thing ever. These two pissheads started on the bus drivers and after about 10 minutes of arguments, the bus drivers just flipped and knocked them both out in front of thousands of people. It was too funny.

We then spent the next few days partying it up at CARNIVAL.It was so much fun, highly recommend it to anyone.It was cool spending carival with local Brazillians instead of doing the obvious Rio or Salvador carnival. We were extremely fortunate because Thais and her friends had cars and so we were able to visit some local tourist attractions by day.We spent a day at this waterfall which was superb.We also spent a couple of days at this Island 20 mins from mainland brazil called Isabella.Here we had some amazing seafood and we stayed in an apartment with a pool.Good times.

After carnival finished, we were totally exhausted, it was just like cricket, DRINK, DRINK and more DRINK.So we headed to Sao Paulo for a couple of days to recharge the batteries.We did not do anything touristy at all but it was really chilled which was needed.We did get to another football game though, Soa Paulo vs some team I cannot remember.The game kicked of at 10, kind of weird watching a live game at 12 midnight but it was still quality.

Next stop was Iguassu falls after a 15 hour bus ride but will save that for another time.

Ciao