Hello everyone! Well, we can officially say, WE LOVE BRAZIL!! Let us just set the scene for a moment . . . The landscape is green, lush and basically a rainforest, the beaches are strips of white sand with warm, inviting water and the whole atmosphere just kind of tells you, ¨grab a drink and kick back for a while¨. The drink of choice, of course being 'caiprihinias'...what else....We obliged. Our first taste was the really cute town, Paraty. It is an old colonial town on the beach surrounded by lots of little islands. The whole atmosphere is charming and many [View Full Entry]

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To Ilha Grande for more scuba-diving! I arrived in Rio on Sunday, but headed off for Ilha Grande south of Rio on Monday. I heard from many travellers that this beautiful island without any roads or cars and fantastic beaches spread around the Island, is worth a visit. I went there with the aim of doing some more scuba diving. I think Ilha Grande is the closest spot to Rio which is not to bad for diving. It´s good to do a bit just after the course to be more safe on the routines. After three days of diving, two barbeque [View Full Entry]

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Neil: One overnight bus and a boat ride later we have arrived in Ilha Grande, a tropical island off the south coast of Brazil blessed with white sandy beaches and covered with atlantic rainforest. The island is quite large, but only about 3000 people inhabit the island plus a few hundred tourists. We´ve decieded to stay for a week and soak up the sun and relax before the final leg of our round the world trip. Our accomodation is a house owned by Willi - a German habitant of the island. Its a nice change from our usual hostel accomodation - [View Full Entry]

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Lima I left you all last time while we were in Lima and Ben was doing his pargliding course. Unfortunately the weather was really bad the next day so he didn´t get to fly but the day after we went into the mountains where the conditions were better. Ben got 4 flights in total and learnt a new manoevre which meant he got his paragliding licence! That means he is now officially a qualified pilot! How cool is that?! He was really chuffed. I also got ANOTHER free tandem flight in the mountains with the instructor which scared the life out [View Full Entry]

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It's Liesel here - David has left me with a rather tough act to follow. Here goes.... After Praia de Sono we couldn't imagine finding a more spectacular beach, but Brazil is full of wonderful surprises, and the next day we stumbled upon Trindade - a rustic collection of 4 different beaches - the 4th being the most unspoilt of all, and also only reachable via a jungle trail. For me, this beach was particularly special, because despite its natural beauty, I also found to my utter delight, a perfect pansy shell tucked into the sand. For any of you that [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone!! Had the best time on Ilha Grande! Stayed there from Sunday until yesterday morning (Friday)! The weather was horrible on Monday so didnt really do much, just hung around with people in the hostel and watched the Germany v Austria game! Go Germany! :o) Had another mini catastrophe on the way back from writing my last blog on Monday - it wouldnt be normal if i didnt have at least one disaster a day! :o) Was walking back to the hostel along the beach, half way along the beach theres a stream going into the sea and because it [View Full Entry]

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We decided to go back on ourselves from Paraty and head to Ihla Grande after being persuaded to go by some fellow nomads. It was only 1 and a half hours on a bus and then a short ferry ride. John at the hostel we stayed at in Paraty booked us into a Pousada (hostel/hotel) which was owned by a friend of his. We were told that a man called William Wallace would be waiting to greet us at the ferry. William turned out to be a mad Brazillian not a Scottish revolutionary. We arrived at the hostel at about 5.30 [View Full Entry]

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Hey!! OK... now for the last part! :o) .... Well im now travelling solo and loving it! Richard wanted to go and visit a friend, and it wasnt somewhere were I was really keen to go especially as it was further down south so even colder and we had decided to start heading north to Rio! Phil was going to go straight to Rio but I decided I didnt want to go with him! I quite fancied going off on my own for a while and meeting more people who are a bit more like me and seeing what happens! :o) [View Full Entry]

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The journey to Ilha Grande went without a hitch despite being a few minutes late for the bus from Rio.. it´s a good job the South Americans run behind schedule! A 2 hour bus ride and 1.5 hour boat ride and we were in Dale´s idea of heaven. Ilha Grande is a 193km2 island off the coast of Rio. There are no cars so you have to get to the 170 beaches by boat or via one of the many trekking trails. It really is a fantastic place and in complete contrast to the crowds in Rio. Our hostel Aqua Rio [View Full Entry]

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Beaches and Ball in Brazil Next stop after Rio was Ilha Grande. Our first full day in Ilha Grande was spent on an awesome all day boat tour. It was a fantastically sunny day and we all just hung out on the boat, music blasting, basking in the sun. We were served water and Caprhinias all day. We got to stop at different beaches around the Island and go swimming and snorkling, and the crew cooked us an all you can eat bbq lunch as well! It was such a fun and relaxing day. I was certainly starting to feel [View Full Entry]

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