Hi all,

Firstly a recap.

We stayed in Sao Paulo for 4 days. It was vert different being in the city compaired to the beach life of Margarita. SP is a very built up city. They even have a building that is the same as the Empire State Building and at night its is all lit up with flashing lights. There are lots of high rise buildings and lots of traffic! We stayed in downtown central SP and just stayed more or less in that area. We went out and had a look around while there but there were quite a few not nice looking characters so we didnt want to take out our camaras and start looking like tourist and draw attention to ourselves (as when we keep our mouths shut we fit in quite well and everybody thinks we are locals)! We went to a really nice bar/restaurant and I had the best steak of my life ( & I ate it the way it came which was medium)!

We left for Rio yesterday on the first of our coach journeys. It put national express to shame anyway! For the price of a ticket to Hudds we got luxury! It was an executive coach. We checked in our bags and were given tickets for collecton, then we were checked with a security device and given a pillow, blanket and snack bag. On board the seats reclined fully and we had lots of leg room. They also showed 2 films. The journey was 6 hours but we stopped off for 20 mins half way through. I must admit I slept for the first half but the views of the country that I saw were breath-taking.

We arrived at the hostel about 7.30pm and got checked in. This is our first proper hostel. We are in a dorm room which is tiny. It has 2 bunk beds (I´m on the top bunk) and lockers for the backpacks and thats it! We were the only ones in it last night but there is another girl coming tonight.

We went out for drinks last night with 2 girls from Brighton (who have left for Africa today), 1 guy from New York and a guy from Dublin! Today we went and chilled out at Impanema beach. Its a really beautiful beach with stunning views of the mountains around.

OK well, will update again soon. oh and your all slacking on the message board front! Say hi and give me some England gossip/info!

P.S no mozzie bites so far in Brazil. Got a couple in Margarita though!