Apr 17, 2010 - Paraty

Paraty (9th - 12th April) After many soggy and wet days in Ilhe Grande, we set off on the ferry to the mainland of Brazil. We then hiked with our bags to the nearest bus station and with super broken Portugese managed to get ourselves onto a direct bus Paraty! It was about a 90 minute drive, filled with amazing scenery and even some SUNSHINE! We stayed in a great hostel in Paraty which was right on the beach, beach bars included for the boys and there favourite 600ml beers! We all waited in anticipation, with beers of course for our 6th...

Apr 17, 2010 - Paraty and Ilha Grande

The bus to Paraty was six hours which by South American standards doesn´t even count as a journey... We arrived to rain, but our hostel was literally on the beach (this freaked Eliza out massivel). Our dorm was a bit of a nightmare as there were three 3 storey bunk beds in a space the size of my dorm room at school (ie really really tiny) so there was no floor space whatsoever. But we met our friend Geoff from Floripa as he was the new barman at Geko so that was very exciting. Paraty is a gorgeous town of white colonial houses and cobbled...

Apr 15, 2010 - Ilhe Grande

Ilhe Grande (5 - 9 April) We are off again, this time we have our sights set on Ilhe Grande which is a island off the coast of Brazil and the plan is to try and get in some quality beach and chill time. We departed from Rio after settling a rather large drinks bill from the Rio hostel (the boys that is)...I suppose I should have predicted that drinking would have been the most significant daily expense when Tim Page Page arrived on the scene. Anyway, Bron, Jen and I cram into one shuttle bus filled with bags in every unused seat. Bags...

Apr 7, 2010 - Rio - The City of Epic Fails

Five keen and excited travellers arrived at JFK and were abruptly told that Dean and I hadn't booked our flight to Rio! PANIC! After many failed attempts of trying to retreive our details we finally convinced the travel agent to let us use his phone, because I was about to cry and confirmed our flight! THANK GOODNESS! After an 8 hour flight from NY to Sao Paulo we tried to catch our connecting flight to Rio. The mission in the airport to try and find our domestic flight was incrediable! No one spoke English and for the first time we...

Apr 5, 2010 - Heaven is a beach

I arrived in la Paz last night sans luggage. My precious backpack is floating around South America at this point, hopefully intact. Though it’s only a backpack its absence is manifesting physically into a dull ache in the pit of my tummy. At least I’m sure it’s that and not the total absence of fibre in my diet over the last month. It’s a little unnerving to realize that my backpack has become a fairly central part of my travelling universe. I suppose, though, it is a trusty constant. As one moves from place to place,hostel to hostel,...

Mar 20, 2010 - Brasil- Addicted to Acai

Following a dozy 24 hour bus ride, Rio was everything that it was supposed to be- it is set in an absolutely stunning natural landscape with huge granite cliffs rising out of nothing, lush green forested surroundings, many beaches and bays and lotsof surrounding islands. It also has the human factor that gets talked about a lot with this busy city having unbelievable contrasts with slums and 5 star resorts in sight of each other. With Rio's reputation for muggings and theft everywhere, we were very careful with our belongings, clothes and...

Mar 12, 2010 - Memoirs of a pale beach bum…

Greetings friends! I have been formally commissioned to report on time spent in Rio De Janeiro, as well as Ilha Grande. I’ve been procrastinating a bit, but have recently noticed that Steyno is beginning to crack his knuckles, so I better start scrambling! Rio has been my best stop yet. With beaches, mountains and rainforests, it’s as beautiful as Cape Town but has weather like Durban. We spent a lot of time on the beach where we got some great shore-break body surfing or 'baljaar.' Most afternoon/evenings would be spent swimming for an...

Mar 10, 2010 - First Blog!

Hi Everyone! We are just testing a blog page...so stay tuned...we have much to tell you about our trip so far...check out our pics of Paraty...let us know the quality of this blog site because we are trying to work out the best option to blog...if you have other ideas let us know... Love from us... xx

Feb 25, 2010 - Button and the Tower of Babel

Leaving the samba sounds of Rio behind us, we headed down the coast towards uncertainty. About 300 km South you reach the Costa Verde which, as it says in the title, is very green and coastal. With mountains on one side, rainforest in the middle, and white beaches overlooking many small islands, it is a stretch of coast that is pleasant to many of the senses. One of the most striking things is that, probably because of the abundance of vegetation and possibly because of the plankton-rich South Atlantic Ocean, the sea in many places actually...

Feb 18, 2010 - CARNAVAL IN RIO!

So we arrived in Rio on the 9th (2 days before the official starting day of the Carnaval), and checked into our hostel. We knew that arriving during the ´calm before the storm´ would give us a chance to do a few touristy things before it all got a bit mad and frantic during Carnaval, so on our first day we did a City Tour, where we went to see attractions like ´Christ the Redeemer´ - which was amazing, the Cathedral, the street where Sambadrome takes place (the main event during Carnaval, where different samba schools parade down the street...

Feb 17, 2010 - Rio is Hot Hot Hot!

So, we left Guatemala on Friday at some point and because we are on cheap skate round the world tickets, had to go via Miami first. The only part of this journey that ran smoothly was the transfer from Antigua to the airport, and once there went downhill. We hadn’t applied for the US immigration thing because we assumed as were just connecting onto a different flight there, would not have to go through customs. (But no, because it’s America we had to go through customs, security, collect our bags, security, put bags back on, customs,...

Feb 17, 2010 - Her Name is Rio

HER NAME IS RIO After the Rio carnival we hit the sights. The guidebooks and local advice were full of scaremongering saying not to take anything valuable with you anywhere, stay off the beaches, don’t go out at night etc because of all the robberies and crime, particularly around carnival season. Mexico City sounded like a tiddlywinks party at the Cambridge University Silly Buggers Society in comparison. Clearly, however, I wasn’t going to come to Rio and leave my camera at the hotel, so we ventured forth and tried our luck. The most...