In which we meet the New Zealander harmonica playing hypnotist...

A lot to fill you in on - starting with the end of our time in Rio. Sunday night saw us head to the Vasco vs Flamengo football derby played at the Rio Olympic stadium - it was only half full but the atmosphere was electric - flags, banners, balloons, streamers, fireworks etc. The game finished 1-1 after a late sending off and even later equaliser from Flamego. When i say the noise was deafening - it could be because one Flamengo fan took it upon himself to lean on me for the duration of the first half and sing at the top of his voice into my ear drum! Once back at our hostel - we had a game of ring of fire (drinking game) which was hilarious including Dan giving a rendition of O Towns ´All or Nothing´ in his boxers. Just when we thought the night was coming to an end - we discoverd that Rene (Hitler he barman from the previous blog) had closed the bar off to have his own private party.We were not happy so duly gatecrashed said party, much to his disdain - eventually leading to him throwing his guitar at us before giving us a furious rendition of Oasis - Wonderall! Next... the kind of normal (or so we thought) New Zealander from our hostel joined us and whipped out a harmonica to join in with the tunes! Later that night we discovered he was a hypnotist - and as such, attempted to hypnotise us! Photo below! He tried very hard, but was extremely unsuccessful! Highlights of the hilarity included trying to stick Michaels hand to his forehead ´´your hand is stuck to your head like glue, when you try and pull it away you will not be able to, it is stuck strong like cement´´ - only for a second later Michael to pull his hand away extremely easily! This lasted about an hour of failed attempts and was one of the funniest things on our trip so far!

The following day we headed to the Lapa steps and were filmed by a Brazilian TV station singing a Beattles song in honour of the Beatles tile on the steps - very surreal! We then headed to Santa Teresa for some more touristy photo opportunities - and our journey on there included a tram journey. We were told you can just jump on and off the trams, which is easier said than done! On our first attempt at the jump onto a moving tram... we geared ourselves up, got ready to leap, then all chickened out and watched the 3mph tram trickle past!! a 1 mile walk and 20 minute wait later, we successfully jumped onto the next tram, which terminated about 100metres further up the road! Nethertheless, We had a good day of seeing the Rio sights. We packed our bags, said goodbye to the nutters in the hostel, and geared ourselves up for the impending 24 hour coach journey to Iguazu - which in the end was actually pretty OK.

We checked into Hostel Bambu, in Iguazu which sits on the Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina border - where we were surprised to see friendly staff, an operational kitchen, and even a swimming pool! We relaxed, sunbathed and planned the following days trip to the Iguazu falls. The next day, we hopped over the border to enter Argentina to see the falls from the Argetinian side, just for the day. The skies were blue and clear which meant we could see the waterfals in their fullest glory - and they were indeed mesmorising. We got a boat into the waterfalls and got absolutely drenched. We discoverd that Dan absolutely loves waterfalls as in the boat he went absolutely mental - shouting at the top of his voice stuff like `we loovvvee ittt yeeee!!´ Also in the national park where the falls are, there were a lot of Argentian school children who had clearly never seen English people before as they kept stopping us to ask for photos and videos with us!! Confused, but flattered, we continued and headed back to Bambu for another epic night which saw Michael lose a bet and have to jump in the pool, another game of ring of fire with some canadians and dutch which saw Dan have to drink the glass in the middle which consisted of beer, capairinha and a raw egg! and a night out to a local brazilian bar with live samba music and countless funny moments.

Next, we headed to Bonito. Cental west Brazil. The journey consisted of 3 coaches. The first, fine. The second, I was stuck next to a whale of a Brazilian woman and was in mild discomfort for around 6 hours. The third and final coach, the air conditioning was broken, we wernt allowed to open the windows, and I hadn´t slept so the journey was rather hellish! There was a small bonus, as when we stepped off of the coach (into the rain) Michael, wearing his backpack, made an epic slip/fall onto his back! We checked into our latest hostel, ´Ecological Expeditions Hostel´ which was basic but OK, and had a look around the local town which is absolutely dead and filled with strange Brazilian cowboys! Made some pasta for dinner, and sat down for some drinks with a group of French people.... highlight of the evening was an old Australian couple briefly joining us and explaining that the man (A jewish fella called Mick Joffe who is a famous characaturist) was about to head to a place near Brazilia, for a spiritual healing operation by a man - ´John of God´ (google it) who apparantly heals thousands of people a day and can remove tumours and such forth using his bare hands! Mick and his wife told us a few more loopy stories before we decided he was mental and wished him luck for his impending operation!

Today, we are still in Bonito, and the only reason we came here was to see the Blue Caves and Rio De Prata - a snorkelling/floating trip in the clearest of waters. However, the heavy rainfall has meant all trips are cancelled today so fingers are firmly crossed for good weather tomorrow.

In other news, my camera has packed up, Dan has had is Ipod stolen, Our football, Wilson, is on his last legs, and we are gearing up for another epic coach/train journey - this time on Tuesday to Bolivia - where we have been promised that everything is extremely cheap - which we are looking forward to greatly! (Also been told that Bolivian women are extremely ugly and everything is cold, dusty and mystical there!!) We are all also considering no shave Novemeber - and the lad Jonny who we met in Rio has continued his journey wth us turning our quartet into a quintet for the time being - nice guy!

Thats all for now - some photos coming on facebook!

Peace and love xxxxx