Hey everyone!! I cant beleive I havent written for so long! On the rare occasions I get to go on the internet putting up my photos seems to take all of my internet time! As you have probably seen from my photos I have been quite a busy bee since my last installment in Cairu! At the moment I am in Bonito doing my PADI advanced scuba diving course! Which is pretty cool - but really cold - Bonito is in the south of Brazil and it is winter here at the moment but at least I am used to being from England! The last two weeks of Cairu were amazing! Sarah, Georige and I set up English lessons in a classroom in the monastry for some of the local girls in the last week which were really sucessful - it was probably my favourite thing that I got to do there. On Easter Sunday which is quite an important holiday to Cairuvians, I helped to set up a little Easter celebration for some of the poorer kids on the island - we dressed up as Easter bunnies and cycled round the town giving out easter egg tokens!! Then later in the evening we took over Tony's icecream shop and had 400 kids (slightly more than we had anticipated!!) for icecream, easter eggs and sweets! That day we also put on a play, one with the local theatre group and a Quest play which was cinderella! They were both really sucessful and the kids loved it - especially the boys dressed as women!! In the last two weeks we also went to the mangroves searching for muscles in the mud, had a Capoeria baptism where we were given our first ropes, achieved our objective of planting 1000 trees and finished the floating platform. So we wernt at all busy!! We also formed lots of great relationships with the locals in those last two weeks and I was really sad to leave - it was definately one of the best experiences of my life - giving me a real incite in to Brazilian day-to-day life. I definately want to go back in a few years and see them all again. So after Cairu, we not only said goodbye to all our friends but Mike, one of leaders, which was really sad, we were so sad in fact that we tied him with duck tape to a gate!! haha. Our leader for expedition Rich, is a great guy but unfortuneatly after our first trek - the first part of expedition he got Malaria - he will be ok - it is not life threatning but it meant we needed another leader! I think this was a sign that our group was obviously difficult to lead!! So we ended up having Rudi!! Our Cairuvian project leader who runs Amainan! He has been so great - because he knows us all. He is really funny and being Brazilian means he forms great relationships with all our guides. Highlights for me so far have been - surfing in Itacare - it was a really nice town,really chilled and pretty with parties on the beach and lovely weather. Our instructors were lovely and I manaeged to stand up and ride quite a few waves in - so I felt like a true surfer chick! The amazon for me was really exciting - as a geographer I couldnt not get a bit excited! It was really beautiful. We stayed on a boat on the Rio Negro - suposidly the widest river in the world. We slept in hammocks which was quite a cool experience but after 7 nights I was definately ready for my bed agian! The nature walks were really cool - seeing all the medicinal properties that the trees had - everything seemed to be used for something! It was amazing! I drank from a water vine and I had a infected cut from surfing on my foot - I was given some bark from one of the trees and it healed up!! We had a wicked guide called jelson there who knew everything!! It was a great experience. The pantonel was the next place we visited - the world largest swamp! Bigger than France - I absoltutely loved it there - it was stunning - we saw some really cool wildlife - loads of crocs, macaws, tookans, rakoons - it was amazing!Then after that my final highlight was Iquazu falls - the most stunning thing I have ever seen in my life - there were soooo beautiful - I just cant describe it! We got a boat right up to it and got very wet! So i think I have just written what could possibly be the worlds longest postcard! I hope everyone is well - I still love getting all your emails and messages! Thank you everyone for all your birthday emails, messages and calls! It was soo sweet of you all - I had a lovely day in Salvidor so thank you. Only a week and a half left with Quest now then I will have been away for 3 months already - how time flies! Then off to Argentina - to Buenos Aires and Bolivia and Peru - I cant wait - It will be nice to have some completle independence - I am travelling with 2 girls from my group and 2 boys - so it should be cool. Lots of love Soph xxxxxxxxx