When we arrived in Paraty we had only planned to be here for 2 nights but this quickly turned into 3 the minute we stepped off the bus! Partay is about 2 hours west of Ilha Grande and easily reached on the local buses. It´s the most fantastic town which consists of classical 18th century Portugese colonial buildings in the historic centre where our hostel was found. This part of the town has no vehicle access and the roads made up of huge cobbles which are actually quite difficult to walk on.. god knows how people bike across them as they must have really sore bums by the end of the day! You also see the odd horse & kart going by every now and again which adds to the charm. The historic town has loads ... read more

We landed in Rio 10 minutes ahead of schedule after enjoying a flight with extra leg room because we had the 'front row seats'. This was great for us as it meant we could get some sleep but you had to feel sorry for the 7' guy behind us! After a 1.5 hours stop at Sao Paulo sat on the plane we were off again and landed in Rio at 7.50am on Monday 2nd June. Rio is not at all as we had expected, you read so many horror stories about how you will get mugged or stabbed if you even step outside. In reality it's very relaxed and not at all intimidating, a bit like London really, you don't go walking around with your bag open but so far all has been fine and we ... read more