Woke this morning to torrential rain which has not stopped all day. Ventured out briefly to the ATM to check whether our new cards work and hoorah one of them works (could only check the ones with money in so will need to try the others again). We also called in the supermarket where Nick bought 2 pork chops for 50p (think he may never leave Brazil). Had another interesting conversation with the hostel manager about trying to get a bus to Peru (am eagerly awaitin...

Hello everyone sorry for the lack of blogs but most of you will know by now that we have been back to the UK for a week as you do when your travelling. Had a lovely week catching up with everyone and we are now back in sunny Rio (NOT!). It is absolutely pouring with rain - Ayr was warmer and drier! We made sure we did the important stuff whilst we were back home like stocking up on food and we estimate that we have enough cheese to last until the end of August! T...

Decided to make a second attempt at visiting Ipanema today. Caught the bus and managed to get off at the correct stop. The beach was very similar to Copacabana but was deserted, this could be because it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale force wind! We walked along the beach until we were soaking and freezing (wish we'd bought those blankets in Paraguay!) then decided to go back to the hostel. The only problem with Rio is that it is a fairweather city. Most...

This morning we had breakfast again with the monkeys. Three of them decided to come up close and just sit there staring at me! I don't know what their problem was as the only thing I have control over that they want are bananas, so it could have only been that the quality or quantity of said bananas were not too their liking. They did look quite sinister glaring at me and reminded me of the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz (a film I cannot watch without having nightma...

Had breakfast on the decking overlooking Rio and were joined by lots of Sagui Monkeys. They only seemed to like bananas so will remain my friends for the rest of the stay, if they begin to show a liking for either Oreos or Magnums I will start eating breakfast indoors. After breakfast we walked to Copacobana Beach which is lovely, soft sand and huge waves. The only downside is everyone wears thongs - personally I think thongs are so wrong on so many levels. Very ...