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Published: December 6th 2011
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Well it’s all over if your reading this; we have finished our year’s adventure! Unfortunately that means you all have to do work at work now, instead of reading our blogs!! What a year....... and Brazil was a fantastic end. We met some great people who helped to make our last week’s travelling really enjoyable and brazil has some absolutely amazing places albeit a little expensive!
Well here goes for our final entry........................
From Iguazu Fallls we took the bus up to Campo Grande to do our final jungle trip, we just can't get enough of them. We decided 2 days would be enough as we just wanted to flash pack from now on and not slum it for too long!! We needn't have worried though, when we arrived at our accommodation it came complete with air conditioning, en suite and fridge, it was paradise in the middle of the Pantanal! Again the jungle didn’t disappoint, on our first night we did a boat trip down the river and saw a Jaguar on the river bank, a 1 in a thousand chance in that area as they live alot further north, it was absolutely amazing and it made you remember where
we actually were. Whilst there, we even managed to get Dan back on a horse for an afternoon trek, his horse seemed to be a donkey again at first but as soon as our guide gave him a stick to whip it, he turned into red rum (even without being whipped). What with him and Jules (our Belgium friend) fighting for John Wayne status and my stallion kicking everything in the face that came near it, it was quite an eventful afternoon.
From here we headed to Bonito which was 3 hours from our Pantanal retreat. We even splashed out and had a pool, nothing to flash we were still in an YHA backpackers!! Bonito is famous for its fresh spring river that has the most crystal clear water and thousand of fish, it was amazing. We took a tour to the river and spent 3 hours snorkelling, it was by far the best snorkelling we have ever done, it was so clear and the fish were amazing. We then headed to Paraty on a 23 hour bus journey, our last long bus trip yipheeeeee, it had rained all night and between Sao Paulo and Paraty the small villages had
flooded blocking the roads. This was just the start of the weeks of rain too come, pretty much every day at some point. Paraty was a lovely old historic town on the east coast, cobbled streets and little quaint shops and restaurants; we spent a few days here before travelling up the coast to an island called Isla Grande. It was beautiful, gorgeous sandy beaches, small little village and walks across the island to secluded beaches, Well not so secluded, as we managed to pick the holiday weekend where the prices tripled and the beaches and boat trips were crammed with locals!!
And so, then it was our final leg up to Rio De Janerio, it was quite surreal thinking in only 9 days time we'd be back in the UK. As a bit of a luxury we decided to rent our own apartment on Copacabana Beach plus it was cheaper than staying in most hostels!! Copacabana Beach and Ipanema Beach are sweeping golden beaches that stretch about 8 kms on the coastline of Rio. At the weekends, the promenade of Copacabana gets sectioned off and becomes a playground and fitness centre for the rich inhabitants who are out and
about, running, walking and socialising. A place not to be missed is Post 9 on Ipanema beach, this is where all the gorgeous people can be found bathing and posing in their best speedos and thongs, I loved people watching there. There is a definite divide of the rich and the poor in Rio but don’t let that put you off because it is an amazing place with loads to see and do. We had a night out in Lapa which was awesome. This is where the local favela people get together and party on the streets playing music and drinking caipirinha’s that literally knocked your head off, we had a wicked time. We did a lot of walking along the stretch of beaches daily, visited the local markets, hippy fairs, different neighbourhoods and local attractions, we also saw the lights being turned on on the famous giant Christmas tree with it being near Christmas, they really do party for everything, there was stalls set up selling food and drinks and music playing with people dancing. The time went so quick, Rio really was a great place to end our fantastic year. Oh yes and to top it off, when
we got to the airport to fly home they had overbooked the plane so we were offered a night in a 5 star hotel, all expenses paid and £500 compensation!! What an amazing end to an absolutely unforgettable, fantastic, mega year that we definitely won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
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