Hey Everyone,

Hope you´re all OK. Well can you believe i´m writing my final journal entry from South America. I am currently at Rio airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta where I stay with family for a couple of days and then home.

We really enjoyed the rest of our time in Florianopolis. It is such a gorgeous place and we really got to chill and enjoy the beaches. It was great. It absoloutely poured on our last day but that kind of made us feel slightly better about leaving. Would have been too gutting to leave if it was glorious sunshine. The rain was so bad, we had to wear big black bin liners over us to stop us from getting too drenched. It was quite funny to see us running over the bridge in bin liners and with our huge backpacks on. Said bye to Rebecca for the last time. She had just arrived in Florianopolis the night before and was staying a few more days before heading up to Ilha Grande and then Rio for Carnaval. Not that i´m jealous or anything!!!

We had an 18 hour bus journey but as usual, the bus was pretty comfortable and we got lots of sleep. Arrived in Rio at 11am this morning, dropped our stuff at our old hostel and then had just enough time to run round, get some last minute bits etc. We also got to spend an hour on the beach, was very sad saying bye to Ipanema beach but i´m sure i´ll be back one day.

We then had our final all you can eat brazillian buffet at carratao and then it was time to head back to the airport. It was so sad saying bye to all the staff at the hostel and everyone else we met. I probably spent more time in Rio than anywhere so it´s almost like my second home. Along with Buenos Aires of course.

Well, better sign off, don´t want to miss my flight. Oh yes, almost had a mini disaster. The silly woman at Delta check in checked my bags all the way through to London as she thought I was just picking up my connecting flight at Delta and was going to London tomorrow. I kindly pointed out that I was staying in Atlanta and she stopped the luggage conveyer thing very quickly and kept apologising. That would have given Delta a 100% record in losing my luggage. In fact, I guess I shouldn´t speak too soon, i´ll wait to see if they arrive in Atlanta.

Well, i´ll reply to all my outstanding emails from Atlanta but i´ll say bye for now. I´m off to cry into my last Caipirinha! :-)

Speak soon

Lisa

xx