After trying to sleep off our Paddy's day hangovers, being dropped off at Concordia, which was the border of Argentina & Uruguay but felt like the middle of nowhere and then being driven to the border in the most beaten up old fiat of a taxi (which had no front bumper and more dents than del boys 3 wheeler),we finally made it to Salto, in Uruguay. It was to be our farewell to Mark and Nicky, who had been with us for just over 2 weeks and wanted to find a ranch to work on for a week or so. We’d made 2 really great friends, who had helped us with our Spanish and had a great laugh with so it was always going to be a downer to say goodbye. So we decided to persuade ... read more

Leaving Rio was always going to be hard, apart from kissing goodbye to the shocking driving and music taste (lady gaga is huge in Brazil, our taxi driver was mental playing her music and driving 60mph through a congested city). But did mean that we were officially on the road and traveling, cant stay in one place too long. We went to the bus station and got our first bus ticket. The 2 and a half hour bus journey was'nt a bad one but the 50 minute boat trip from the mainland to Ilha Grande was amazing. Not only had we discovered that the sun was well and truly on its way (factor 30 at the ready,) but according to the position of our hostel on the map we were going to be spending the next ... read more

Wednesday 9 February – Tony’s 30th Birthday We woke up at St Christopher’s Inn in Hammersmith at 5am after arriving gone midnight. Tony’s first ever dorm experience and his face wasn’t too happy in the morning. He did bless me for bringing the earplugs but sometimes peoples snoring is just far too loud. My main issue is the pain I’m still suffering from my arm that is apparently made out of chalk! The plaster cast isn’t too comfortable to sleep in either. We made the 30 min journey to Heathrow, Tony still completely clueless about where he was going; somewhere in Europe was the assumption. When we arrived I told him to go to Check in Zone A. We were stood at F so he had a long way to go and couldn’t see Zone A. ... read more