“Football was amazing. The crowd was insane, people were waving flags everywhere, idiots were running around the stadium handing out flares, and when a team scored everyone would light them. You couldn’t see anything but green haze for a few minutes.”

Rio, like most of Brazil, was a very polluted metropolis. “Where I was, you couldn’t walk for a block without coming across six or so dead dogs.”

In early June, Lauren finished her volunteer work with the Alcançando Vidas project, giving herself four weeks of travelling time to explore South America’s largest country. First, Yass’ volunteer abroad had to bid farewell to teary children.

“It was difficult to leave, as many of the kids became quite attached.”

After emotional goodbyes, Lauren departed and flew solo to Refice, a city on the North East Coast of Brazil – renowned as the country’s most violent city. Following wise advice, Lauren avoided trouble areas and was treated to spectacular colonial buildings and cobblestone roads in both Refice and nearby town Olinda.

After getting in touch with Brazil’s colonial heritage, Lauren continued to explore up Brazil’s north east coast toward popular tourist destination, Pipa. Once there, she got in contact with international volunteers working on environmental projects.

“I loved Pipa. We swam with dolphins, had samba and surfing lessons… it was a real hippie town.”

Lauren moved on from warm, safe and fun Pipa to dangerous, bleak Fortaleza, where the Aussie visitor was given a mighty scare.

“I was looking around Fortaleza when a man living on the street came up and started talking to me,” Lauren explained. “I thought he was going to rob me, I was very nervous.

“Next thing I know, he handed me his five-month-old baby and walked off. I was left holding a crying, naked baby. I though he’d abandoned him… I didn’t know whether to hand him to the police, take him with me, give him to the people on the street, or put back him back on the map where he was playing and walk away.

“Fortunately, the father returned soon after… he had gone to the beach to dig up some jewellery he’d buried in the sand.”

From Fortaleza, Lauren ventured to the mouth of the world’s largest jungle, the Amazon. There she visited remote villages and walking trails, discovered unique wildlife and slept on hammocks in the outdoors.

After exploring the Amazon region, planet Earth’s largest Wetlands, Pantanal, awaited. Lauren was part of a group invited to go fishing for the specimen with dagger like teeth.

“We went piranha fishing in a small spot where we so happened to go swimming the day before,” Lauren said. “Once we’d caught a few, our guide put a stick in one the piranha’s mouths. It more or less evaporated.”

In her final days on the vast continent, Lauren went snorkelling, caving, visited the Iguaçu Falls and parts of Argentina.

On July 16, Lauren Corcoran departed from Buenos Aires and said goodbye to five months of adventure, sure to store enough memories to last a lifetime.

“It was an interesting experience. Exploring South America certainly gave me the travel bug… I will go back.”