Wowzers!! People told us we would love Brazil and they weren´t wrong, it is such a brilliant country. We only had a couple of weeks but fitted in as mch as we could, and loved every minute.

RIO - 26 - 30 MARCH

What a Rio-lly great way to start our South American adventure (see what we did there?!) - staying in a hostel in one of the famous favela comunities in Rio de Janiero. It was a bit daunting arriving in the dark at 11pm, especially when the taxi driver dropped us at some random hotel at the bottom of the favela! Luckily the owner spoke a bit of English and called Nelma, the lady who works at the hostel, who came and met us and gave us a lift as far as it is possible for cars to drive within the favela. We walked the rest of the way, following Nelma up steps, round corners, up more steps, down steps and throught the rabbit warren of little concrete houses to our hostel - Tikki hostel in the Cantagalo favela. The view from the balcony was amazing with all the twinkling lights of the favela stretching up the hillsides and the high rise hotels below.

In the morning the view was even better - directly in front of the balcony you can see the rest of the favelas, to the left Copacabana beach and to the right Ipanema beach. Sweet!

Stayng in the favela was amazing. There is a great atmosphere with groups of people laughing, playing, drinking in groups,and we felt safe the entire time. Nelma was great - she didn´t speak any English so we commnicated on google translate. She showed us around the community, so we got to see the school and were invited to an amazing circus show performed by the students to the younger children, watched a football game (the support was crazy - drummers and chanting jst at a small indoor game) and got taken to the very top of the favela where they have a small garden and absolutely stunning views over Copacabana beach.

It was also so close to the beaches. To get to Ipanama you take an elevator from the favela. To get to Copacabana you walk down through the favela, down a really steep slope. To get back up again you can walk, or cheat as we dd some times (t is soooo steep!!) and get a moto-taxi for 3 reales (5 reales = 1 GBP).

The beaches are amazing. No wonder Brazil are so good at football - there are pitches along the length of the beaches, and constant matches going on. If they are not playing matches they are playing football volleyball - basically keepy uppy over the net which is mesmerising to watch as they are brlliant! We spent hours just watching people play sport.

You can´t go to Rio and not visit Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor to give him the Brazilian name). We saw him perched on top of the hills when we had a long walk around Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas - a huge lake with a running/cycling trail around it, but had no idea of how huge he would be when we got to the top of the hill. It was amazing.

We nearly didn´t get to see him becase of the weather. It took us quite a while to get there via local bus then a mini van, then when we went to pay the lady behind the booth told us that there was no visibilty, and that we wouldn´t be able to see him. Cristo sits on top of a 710km high peak called Corcovado, and that day it was really cloudy so the statue was blocked by the clouds. As we had gone all the way up there we decided to wait it out and hope that the clouds dispersed a bit. Our perserverence paid off and we got a great view of him. It would have probably made better photos if it was clear blue sky but it was actually quite cool being up above and amongst the clouds. Defintely a big tick in the amazing things to see box.

The next day we got lost twice so managed to see nearly the whole of Rio! In the morning we went to the Botanical Gardens as we read that there was live music at the weekends. There was not. It was still lovely though, and massive! We left through a different gate to the one we went through, so were nowhere near the bus stop we needed. We decided just to walk the perimter of the gardens, whch took freaking ages! We couldn´t find the bus stop and ended up walking back to Copacabana beach which is quite a trek in the heat.

Our afternoon plans were to go to Santa Teresa to see Selaron´s steps, then meet Billy and Jess (a couple we met at our hostel) in Lapa at night for drinks. We ended up getting on the wrong bus and got taken pretty much around the whole of Rio. We kept thinking that if we stayed on we might end up where we needed to be, but after about an hour we were completely the opposite side of the city, so jumped out when we saw a metro station and ended up going to a place called Gloria. By this time it was dark so we asked a taxi driver to take us to the steps.

The steps were amazing. This dude called Seralon mosaic tiled over 200 steps with brightly coloured tiles from all over the world, and they look awesome! We took some snaps, walked up the steps and the down a cobbled hilly street to Lapa. We just made it to a bar to wait for the guys when the heavens opened! It was a ridiculous amount of rain. We orded a couple of chopps (beers) and sat under the awning watching the bar opposite where they were playing samba music and people were dancing, including a drunk homeless guy who was busting some serious shapes out the front!

When Jess and Billy arrived we went over to said bar, but decided not to go in as we didn´t want to pay an entrance fee. No worries, we thought, Lapa is supposed to be a really lively place with loads of bars. Well there were, however as we had chosen Sunday for our night out most places were closed! We just found a bar, ordered beers and listened to the band playing. This is when we found out that you have to pay an additional charge in Rio if there is live music!!

After a couple of hours we decided we needed to listen to some proper Brazilian music, and read about a place called Bip Bip in the Lonely Planet, which billed Sunday as the best night. We got a taxi there and saw people outside, so thought it was a good sign if people were queing to get in. They weren´t - the place was so small that people were just standng outside. It is basically a open fronted room with 5 guys playing lovely Brazilian music. The owner is an old guy. There is no bar, you get your beers out the fridge, tell the guy your name and how many beers you are taking, he notes it down then you pay him at the end. It was a brilliant night, very different from anything we have seen before. Nobody claps when the song is finished which is weird, and no-one can talk when the music is playing - quite difficult when you´ve had a few drinks!!

PARATY - 30 MARCH - 1 APRIL

We hadn´t heard of Paraty before the trip, but read some good reviews so thought we´d give it a go. So in the morning we got up and went to the bus station and got on the next available bus, whch was in 4 hours time. We were hanging from the night before (last night syndrome strikes again) so had a Bob´s Burger, the Brazilian version of MacDonalds.

We arrived in Paraty after dark, and found our way (with a little help from a boy on a bike) to Vibe hostel where we had booked 2 nights. After checking in we went straight out for some food, to a place called Istanbul (thanks again Lonely Planet) for some amazing Turkish food. We waddled home feeling very full and had an early night.

The next morning we went for brekkie, and found out that the majority of the hostel guests were English! We got chatting and all decided to go on a boat trpi that day, as Paraty is famous for its beaches and islands.

I don´t think we have been on a bad boat trip yet, and this one followed the same theme as the others - amazing scenery, great company and free booze! We had a constant supply of Caipirinha´s (yummy mcyummerson) which was awesome! We went to some lovely islands, swam in the sea, Hickey played footy on the beach (and scored against Brazil and Germany) and he also jumped into the water from a massive rock face.

When we got back we made some dinner (we realised we have been eating out all the time which is not good for our budget!) and watched a remake of the film Carrie which was absolutely terrible! After a few more drinks we called it a night, as knew we would be travelling with a hangover again. This time on a 16 hour journey!

FLORIANOPOLIS 2 - 5 APRIL

16 hours turned into about 22 hours! It took 6 hours to get to Sao Paolo (which we decided not to visit as it is just a city and not too much to do apparently), then had a 5 hours wait, then a 12 hour bus ride from there to Florianopolis. Fun!

Florianopolis was described to us as being a bit like Ibiza, so obviously we were sold! When we got to our hostel we asked reception what was best to do there, and they said "beaches". Oh well if we must!!

We spent the first couple of days there at Barra de Lagoa beach, as it is the busiest livliest beach. It is packed full of people sat under big umbrellas drinking beer in the sun. We walked a bit further down the beach away from the crowds during the day and did some sunbathing and played bat and ball, then as the afternoon wore on joined the masses for some beach drinking.

On our last day we were headed for another beach day, but bumped into Barry and Chris from Paraty who said they were going to a pool party at a club called P12 that afternoon. We signed up too, and spent the afternoon and evening boogying to some wicked house music drinking moet (thanks Barney!!) in the sunshine. Great way to end our short stay here.

FOZ DE IGUASSU 6 APRL

Another ridonkulously long overnight bus journey later we arrive in Foz, where we were staying for one night so we could do something we have been looking forward to - The Igassu falls. After checking into our hostel (and gettng upgraded from a dorm to a private double room, yippee) we got on a local bus and went straight to the falls.

Words cannot describe how amazing the falls are but I will try. Actually I won´t. You take a 2km walk, and every new view is even better than the last. The sheer size of the falls and volume of water is unbelievable, and the speed and sound of it is crazy! You can see rainbows in the water spray and there are waterfalls of all different sizes everywhere you look. A-mazing. What a brilliant way to end a brilliant stay in Brazil! We have been told its even better on the Argentina side so we will be heading there next.