Blogs from Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

As far as going out went on Saturday night, our prematch nap may have continued through to the morning, so we woke up fresh and ready to hit the beach. There´s a fine line between being tanned and being frazzled, but in our case there was no doubt we were the latter. Thinking it was cloudy and that clouds didn´t have the ability to move (and the fact that we´re English), we ventured out to Copacabana with no sun cream and paid a price we are still feeling today. Copacabana is a five kilometre stretch of unrelenting sunbaked sand filled with the upper echelons of beauty. The sea, while clogged with a bit of rubbish and sewage here and there, is a warmish temperature. It´s quite nice. That paved the way for the favela funk party ... read more

So here we are, finally, after a couple of flights. The first was fairly uneventful apart from Mr Kinobi (at least that´s what his XL England shirt said on the back - might have been a tribute to Obi Wan who, as far as we know has never been near a rugby pitch, aeroplane or Italy) complaining that it was too cold. The second was even more uneventful for the first few hours - so much so that we weren´t actually moving and both hads time to get through a film an a nap in the three hours it took them to de-ice the plane, runway and probably whole of Rome. In hindsight, a direct flight with British Airways might have been a better call. Anyway, 13 hours later and the snowy chill of England was ... read more

Ok, last ever blog from a grey, glum-looking Rio. The sun has barely shone here, but the beautiful Costa Verde coast has definitely made up for it. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas and glad to see the back of our backpacks, grimey hostels and SA scumbags, but we'll definitely miss this way of life! 09/12/11- After publishing our last blog in Paraty, we returned to the pousada for crackers and a poolside beer before catching a minibus to Penha village. We were dropped off next to a church perched on top of a massive boulder, and walked down to an even bigger boulder in the river, creating a crazy natural water slide! Lunatics sometimes surf down this monstrous rock (there's even an annual world cup!), but we only saw people sliding down it. Olie ... read more

Today we had our first day free all on our own and it was a gorgeou day so we decided just to chill out at the beach. Dan was sick in bed all day which really suck. Allie and I headed straight to the beach and Trav and El went via the shopping mall first. They said the mall was pretty cool and El bought a few lil things like a singlet and a t0-shirt to replace the few she has lost on the trip! ( I'd like to point out that I hve officilly lost nothing!!!!! - shock horror I know!) We were planning on meeting up at the beach but never saw them the whole day. So the 4 of us hung out seperately at the beach all day. The sun over here is ... read more

Hi everyone, well after one crazy journey we made it to Rio last night at 2100 local time. we picked a taxi from what seemed like thousands (and avoiding the strange men offering their services in the arrivals lounge!) finally arrived tired and weary to our hotel at 2200 - a mere twenty hours after leaving kettering. Hotel is plain but clean and the service is good, and breakfast was ok this morning although even after trying most of the tea bags still couldn´t find a proper cup of tea, so craig decided to try some coffee instead which nearly blew his head off!! too much of that and he´ll be an addict. Today we took the metro to Ipanema (took a gamble on which ticket to buy but worked out in the end). we walked ... read more

Pierwsze dwa dni w Rio byly dla mnie udreka! Po tygodniu w slonecznym, radosnym tygodniu w rytmie bebnow wyladowalismy w szarym i deszczowym Rio, gdzie ani widu ani slychu Karnawalu, zero przygotowan (jak w Salvadorze) nic a nic. Z Salvadoru zlapalismy samolot bo okazal sie tanszy niz bylby bus. Coz za cudowne uczucie leciec, ahhh. Po ponad dwoch miesiacach tulaczki z miejsca na miejsce busami odwyklam od tego wynalazku! Wsiedlismy do samolotu, usadowilam sie w siedzeniu, podziwialam widoki przez chwile - jak to zwykle bywa w busie - po czym poczulam znuzenie! Oczy sie zamknely na dobre i zapadlam w slodki sen na siedzaco - jak to bywa w busie. Po chwili otworzylam oczy szykujac sie na zmiane pozycji zeby zniwelowac zdretwiale poslady a tu nagle okazalo sie, ze to juz...jestesmy w Rio!!!! Wow, dzieki za ... read more

So finally we got to South America! I won´t be doing a blog each day like India, simply because we´re staying in places much longer and there won´t be as much to report plus it´s a completely different trip to India, with more focus on the night life than sightseeing and day-time activities and to be honest I´d much rather be outside sunbathing than sat inside on a computer! The pictures might have to do the talking instead! Before I go on about Rio, I need to give Air France a mention- that flight was great! There was as much wine and champagne as you wanted, your own TV so you could select films/ TV you wanted to watch...finally managed to watch the King´s Speech on there. Really nice food too and complimentary ear plugs and ... read more