This blog will work... or the computer gets it.

Right, i think i am have the ideal circumstances for writing a blog. Internet is connected and free, no one is waiting for it, i have a fully functioning space bar, and no plans as yet for my evening...conditions are perfect.

So for all of you who did not have the patience to read between the %'s on my last blog here is the edited version (thanks to Richard's find and replace skills)...

This is day 4 in Ilha Grande and a very exciting day for Claire. It was the first day she actually got to go outside the hostel on a real excursion.On the first day here we were all so exhausted that we went to bed as soon as we were shown our rooms. Rio had sucked the life out of us all. We slept for 6 hours got up had dinner at this buffet restaurant that was really nice, you just pay for the weight of your food, it was like 3.20 per 100g so as long as you don't get too greedy it works out quite cheap. then we went for a quick wander around town, I had a delicious soft serve cone and then we went to bed again.The next day Katrina, Anthea and I went for a wander around town but Claire had to stay behind cos her foot has been giving her grief and she decided she needs to rest in order to give it a chance to heal. After about 30 mins of wandering we were soo hot and sweaty we couldn't handle it anymore so went back to the hostel. Later that afternoon we tried again but this time to the beach to cool off. This was nice although we just went to the main beach where all the boats are harboured so not too beautiful but refreshing nonetheless. That evening Katrina came down with a gastro problem, the first one for our group, so she was out of action for the next day. On our third day we had planned to go for a walk to a beach called Lopez Mendez but with Claires foot problem my cold getting worse with a nasty cough and Katrina feeling nauseas it was out of the question. So it was yet another day of sitting around doing nothing.

Yesterday Katrina and I finally felt up to going out so we left Claire at the hostel feeling sad and apparently getting symptoms of cabin fever. We left early morning but it was such a scorcher of a day, 38 deg with very high humidity. with my cold i was huffing and puffing up the hills but it only took us 2 hours to get to Lopez Mendez which was faster than we expected. As we were leaving the main village that morning a small sausage dog came up to us and we foolishly said hi to him. This was all the encouragement he needed and he then followed us for the whole day, all the way to Lopez Mendez. We couldn't believe how loyal he was to us as we hadn't fed or watered him. We also felt slightly guilty because we were concerned he wouldn't find his way home and we thought we might have to pay to take him back on the ferry. Fortunately while we were swimming at the beach he wandered off and found new friends and 2 days later we saw him back at the main village so he must constantly follow travellers all over the island. Lopez Mendez was very beautiful the water was clear and the sand was white. we went for a few swims, we couldn't really sun bathe cos it was too hot but we sat in the shade and read our books for a while and then ferried back to the main village. The main village does have a name, filled with a's, if i hazard a guess i would say abraao?? If you care enough i'm sure you can google it. oh we also met some attractive looking islamic guys at the beach who explained to us we need to walk back to the previous beach to get a ferry, which was lucky else we would have sat at Lopez Mendez all day waiting. I couldn't get over how blue one of these guys eyes were. Anyway...

That evening we went out for dinner because Claire was desperate to get out of the hostel after being cooped up there all day. We went to a great pizza place on the beach front and the pizzas were amazing. We then went to a self serve icecream parlour which was just a dream come true for me... you just take a bowl, cup or waffle bowl and fill it with any flavour icecream you wish and then pay by weight of the bowl. I had approx 6 flavours and they were amazing...there was white chocolate, chocolate, ferreir rocher (spl?) vanilla choc chip, coconut, and one other i can't remember, all of them were delicious.

So back to day 4 (which is silly now cos i'm in panama) Claire katrina and I went on a boat day trip and went snorkelling at 3 different beaches around the island. It was a great day, the water was pretty clear in most places and we saw quite a few fish, a sea turtle, katrina saw an eel and we saw like i would approximate 3 million tiny fish come swarming towards us and they just parted ways as we sam through, it was very cool.

that evening i was very happy to FINALLY catch up with dave (my british friend for those who might confuse him with my brother) We had been in Rio at the same time but never managed to catch up other than a chance meeting outside the Othon while collecting sambadromo tickets. They had just arrived on the island that evening so we went out for dinner with them and then wandered the beach in search for somewhere to have a drink. the sky that evening was incredibly clear you could see the milky way and all the stars seemed so clear. we finally found a hostel at the end of the beach that was still serving drinks so we had a couple and headed home at about 2.30. dave kindly walked me back to my hostel and on our way back a massive crab walked along our path.

On the last day we had planned on going kayaking in the morning but we didn't get a chance because after we had checked out of the hostel we had all our gear with us so we figured we better just get going. we took a ferry back to the main land and then bussed back to Rio, we stayed in a hostel called tupiniquin hostel that claims to be alternative but i wasn't a fan because it was their internet that screwed my blog and the place had so many rules like its forbidden to leave your stuff on the ground, and you get a 50reais fine for leaving you room door open. But we were just there for one night so it didn't really matter. We decided to go out for dinner that night because it was our last night in Brasil so we wanted to get rid of all our spare Reais. We found a restaurant called America which looked cool but we order chicken ceasar burgers and they tasted exactly like McDonalds burgers, and we paid about 3 times the price. Seems to be a common theme for us while we've been travelling, we always get disappointed with what we've ordered, usually because we're not entirely sure what the spanish/portugese translation is. But thats life and we got over it and went to get icecream-something we are rarely disappointed with.

The next day we left Rio for Panama, our stopover country, we had a 7 hour flight to get there, it was a good flight, quite a bit of turbulence, which i love, makes it a bit more interesting. We were unimpressed with the amount of people who had their windows shut for the duration of the flight, like they didn't realise we were flying over the amazon. None of managed to score a window seat so we often looked over peoples shoulders to catch a glimpse. We watched a few movies, The women was appalling bad, i didn't watch 4 holidays because i have already seen it and the final movie was The day the earth stood still, but they didn't time it well cos the flight ended before the movie had, so Clem can you email me to tell me how that movie ends, or anyone who knows.

When we arrived in panama we got into a massive line for customs and waited at least 30mins and when we finally got to the front the woman asked us for our visas to which we replied "Um our what??" turns out that at the back of the line behind the staircase we came down there is a small counter where we need to buy visas. so off we headed back past the ever growing customs line to the visa desk, filled in our forms and fortunately we were allowed back to the front of the line.

By this point it was about 7pm and dark and we went through the airport knowing we didn't have a hostel booked for that evening. We kinda never got round to organising one and we assumed there would be internet at the airport. We were wrong. so we went to the information desk to ask for help and they were less than helpful, so we went to a phone book, wrote down the first few hostels we could find and went back to the information desk to ask if they could call for us because we suck at speaking spanish over the phone. The first one had no beds but fortunately the second one did. We organised a taxi to our hostel and we were surprised at how impressive panama city was at night, there are so many skyscrapers, felt like America, not that i've been. we arrived at our hostel and it was overpriced, felt pretty dead and the rooms were pretty scummy. But it was a place to sleep and we decided to find a new hostel in the morning.

So yesterday we spent the morning organising hostels and doing shopping for essentials such as soap and cookies. Then we found a new hostel, which has claims as the best hostel in panama city and it lives up to it's reputation. It located in a 330 year old village and its called Luna's castle. It a very old restored building and it has a very cool feel about it. It overlooks some amazingly old broken buildings, (in my facebook album) and has awesome art all through it. It has an old theatre below it and they have free pancakes and banana breafasts every morning. Plus its only half the price of the first hostel we stayed at.

I think I'll leave at that because this blog is too long, i need to learn to summarise. Tune into Nicky's blog next time to hear about our Panama Canal adventures.