3 April 2008 - Brazil

Day 179 - After about 20 hours on the public bus (with a bit more sleep on this occasion - surprisingly), we then arrived in Sao Paulo where we changed onto another small bus just for our group. It was approx another 4 hours later before we arrived in the town of Paraty. After all that travel we rewarded ourselves with a few caprianhas (famous Brazilian drink - usually made incredibly strong with 40% alcohol).

Day 180 - We had a nice lie in in the morning and were then off on a boat trip to a number of nearby islands. We spent the day swimming, snorkelling and hanging out on the beaches. It was such a good day after the restless bus trip the day (and night) before. It was then back to Paraty which is a lovely little picturesque town with cobbled streets and pretty buildings. We did a bit of shopping for havaianas (the flip flop of Brazil!) and had a walk around the town. In the evening we chilled again with a few more caprianhas kindly prepared by one of the other tour leaders.

Day 181 - Little bit hungover in the morning but luckily we had a shortish bus trip to the next stop. It was then onto a boat to Ilhe Grande - an island about 4 hours from Rio. Having arrived fairly late in the day we had a little siesta in preparation for a big night out. The island has one club for late night drinking and dancing (opening at midnight) and that´s where we headed after a few drinks in our pousada (hotel). Yet again a few caprianhas and other cocktails were consumed by the group! This culminated in a number of early casualites, a disappearance, the consumption of burgers and some unpleasant sickness! Unfortunately, Lynne fell into the latter category!

Day 182 - Lynne was unable to leave the hotel room until approximately 7pm!! Ricky, having taken care of Lynne all night and lacking sleep caught up on a few hours by lying in till midday. The rest of the day was pretty much a wipe out for the entire group!

Day 183 - The group hired an entire boat to themselves to visit the various beaches around the island. It was an all you can eat and drink trip and it got very messy! However, Lynne was abstaining from drinking that day! It was a really funny day as most people were drunk and fooling around (steering the boat, dancing, diving off the boat etc etc).

Day 184 - We were sad to leave the island as it had been a good couple of days (bar the sickness - Lynne only of course!). It was then onto the final stop of the tour - Rio de Janeiro. We stayed in a hotel just off Copacabana beach. Late afternoon we headed off to the Sugarloaf mountain to watch the sunset. There are amazing views of the city, beaches and the Christ statue. On the way back to the hotel we managed to squeeze nine people into a taxi! The final group meal was in an all you can eat pizza restaurant. There was barely time to finish a slice before another was put on the plate. Dessert was chocolate and strawberry pizza (no cheese thankfully!). We visited the night market to get our Brazilian souvenir (a samba drum) and then had a quick drink on the beach front before heading back for our final day.

Day 185 - In the morning a few of us took a taxi up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was pretty impressive close up and we got some good pictures as the weather was perfect. In the afternoon we headed down to Copacabana beach for some sunbathing and a kick around (with some of the boys and girls in their Brazilian shirts!). It was then quickly back to the hotel for a shower before the final highlight of the tour - a Copa Libertadores match between Fluminese (a Rio based team) and Libertad (a Paraguayan team) at the Estadio de Maracana. For those who don´t know (and of course all footie fans should!), the Maracana is one of the most famous stadia in the world. It holds the record for the largest ever attendance at a game and will be the venue for the 2014 World Cup Final. The atmosphere was amazing - singing, flag waving, flares, flour bombs - completely crazy, completely Brazilian!!! Ricky was loving it, jumping up and down, singing (obviously his own words!) the Fluminese songs and getting very hot in his newly purchased Fluminese shirt. The result was a good one - Fluminese winning 2-0. The group had an amazing night, it was such a shame that this was the end of the tour and that we had to say our goodbyes. After a few hugs, kisses and the odd tear here and there, it was "Chao" to our new friends as we had to quickly jump in our taxi for our 3.30am flight to Santiago (we didn´t leave the stadium till gone 12pm so it was all a bit of a rush!!)