On Friday 20th Feb we arrived back in Rio for Carnival. After being dropped off at Hotel Vila Rica by the fast-track minibus we were told that they had had a boiler leak so we were being moved to another hotel in a better area. We were a bit disappointed as although we knew it wasnt the best area from the last time we stayed, we were really looking forward to the breakfast as it was one of the best we had in Brazil! So we got a taxi to the new hotel which we were...

After Paraty we took a 2 hour bus ride to Angra dos Reis to get a ferry over to Ilha Grande, which is reputed to be one of the best islands for beaches in Brazil. There is only 1 ferry per day which is at 3pm and we arrived at the port around 1pm. Luckily we didnt have to wait long because so many other people were there waiting to go, we got on a schooner with a load of other people and got chatting to a couple of guys. The crossing wasnt too bad, although where...

We arrived in Paraty early evening on Thursday 12 February and we were booked into the Historic Centre Hostel in the Old Town. The taxi could only take us so far as once you get into the Old Town the streets are all cobbled so only fit for pedestrians. We only had to walk a little way though and found the hostel easy enough. When we got up to the door we saw a couple we had bumped into early who had been on our bus from Rio and they said they hadn´t booked a ...

OK, here is the continuation from last night!! So after around a 2 hour bus journey from Niteroi we arrived in Petropolis. It is north of Rio, situated in the mountains. The journey up there was like a fairground ride - because it is in the mountains the road is really windey, not straight at all! The bus driver was overtaking on bends and speeding round corners that honestly we thought the bus would tip over... was quite funny. There were bars dotted along t...

16/02/09 Its been a couple of weeks since our last blog so plenty to write about! On Wednesday 4th Feb we moved to a nice pousada in the centre of Buzios. We felt a bit isolated in the hostel we were in as the manager had flown to the US and nobody else there spoke English. It wasnt all that clean either so we didnt want to use the kitchen to prepare food so ended up having bed picnics of tinned tuna in tomato sauce on our last night there - not very appetising...