Thursday 16th September - Ilha Grande - Rio De Janeiro
Before we left this morning our host told us the island has up to 70 policemen covering it (whether that´s all at once, we´re doubt!) and that the law here is an ass (in Brazil generally) - his 3 storey house where we stayed has had it´s own individual law applied to it after he complained to the authorities about them wanting to knock it down! The boat back was more crowded than we thought it would be but most were locals it seems as there were plenty of spaces on the bus when we departed the quay. A 2.5 hour journey took us back to Rio for 2 more nights - we would´ve stayed one more night on the island if Sue didn´t have to re-visit the ear doctor one more time tomorrow. Once we got here we had to book some more accomodation in Lima as our previous one fell through. The area around our hotel (2 blocks from Copacabana) is a bit rougher looking than the place we stayed in Leblon last week. We grabbed some very tasty deep-fried pancakes this evening outside our hotel so we´ve turned in early rather than bother seek out a cafe or restaurant. The shower curtain collapsed this evening on Sue and so did Sue´s dad, laughing when we told him what happened Derek told him what had happened on the phone!

Friday 17th September - Rio De Janeiro
Last night an alarm (house/car) went off at 8.30pm - it was finally switched off this morning at about 5am - so we had a very peaceful night´s sleep! Breakfast was surprisingly good with our first sighting of honey in a while. We only had 2 tasks for ourselves today - first up our Polish/Brazilian English speaking doctor who confirmed that Sue´s ear is almost back in full health. We decided to brave the scales whilst there only to find we have both put on about a stone each since leaving home in February - we´re not too surprised! Next up we grabbed some postcards and scribbled some words of wisdom to the folks back home. Posting it proved to be hassle-free with no declaration of contents or prohibition of sealing tape needed. The day was overcast and it started to rain so we settled for pizza and salad in a nearby restaurant. Derek phoned his parents for the first time in a while to say hello. We leave Rio in the midst of an election campaign in Brazil which seems to consist of a confusingly high number of candidates, loud music blasting from cars, flag-pole waving and cheesy untrustworthy grins beaming down from huge roadside posters - much like at home really! The TV is our hotel room is unusual to say the least - when we switch it off, a moving red picture remains on the screen - spooky!

Saturday 18th Septemer - Rio De Janeiro - Santiago (should´ve been Lima!)
Another alarm kicked off last night about 10pm but to our surprise it only last an hour. The area where the hotel is - behind Copacabana is a bit seedy - we´ve noticed there is a constant presence of a police car outside the hotel. There is a huge hill behind the hotel with a large shanty town and we think we heard either a gunshot or an explosion go off last night. We were glad to escape to the airport in a blacked-out taxi at 5.45am! We spent the last of our Brazilian Reals on breakfast at the airport and were flying by 8.15am - we had a quick stop in Sao Paolo for 30 minutes after an hour and then it was 3.5 hours to Santiago. Harry Potter´s 3rd movie passed the time for us though Sue fell asleep at the end so it couldn´t have been that good. At the ´transit´ room in Santiago we noticed our onward ticket said our departure was 00.50 - 11 hours away! We thought we were flying at 20.15 but seemingly that flight had ´changed´ to 00.50 - not to worry, we soon changed it to the 21.10 flight instead - only a 7 hour wait. We had a nice big glass of wine ´taster´ each and Sue had a go in an oxygen tent for half an hour to pass the time - she felt no different afterwards and had no inclination to do the moonwalk! When we checked the screen we discovered the flight we´d changed to had a delay of 3.5 horus! So booking the hotel in Lima yesterday had been a waste of time after all - but LAN Chile gave us a phonecard so we rang the hotel to say we weren´t coming - we would´ve got about 3 hours kip and then back to the airport again. With our 2nd meal voucher (we´d used the 1st earlier for the very bland ´menu of the day´) we bought 10 bottles of water and then had the brainwave of bringing our 11.40am flight tomorrow forward by 5.5 hours to leave at 6am instead - so we were happy again that we wouldn´t be hanging around Lima airport for too long! Though we knew we´d have been awake for 27 hours by the time we got to Cuzco