Brazil

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Ilha Grande

After Rio we headed down the Brazilian Coast to a little island called Ilha Grande, for some relaxation (because Rio had just been so exhausting!). The weather improved (i.e. it stopped raining) which is good when one wants to lie on the beach. Ilha grande reminded me a bit of some of the Thai islands - lovely white sandy beaches, no roads to speak of, just green rainforest covering the entire centre of the island. Helen and Fergus were still with us, so the consumption of caipirinhas continued....... It was quite a fun place - we even managed to get ourselves invited to someone´s 45th birthday party, cake and everything, and Fergus managed to pull one of the rather large Brazilian ladies!!!!!

We did a mini-hike through the middle of the island over to one of the other beaches. I can´t say I found it easy, slightly worrying for the Inca trail, though I suppose I have a few months to improve my fitness (yeah right). Had dinner at a floating restaurant that was accessed via a little boat on a pully system!

Paraty

Next stop was Paraty, a cute little colonial town on the coast, south of Brazil. Only had a couple of days here so we decided to do a little boat trip to visit some of the surrounding coast line and islands, all very beautiful. Had a little snorkel but the most exciting thing we saw was a starfish, oh well. That evening, in the spirit of trying to maintain some sort of budget, we decided to sample a bottle of Brazilian wine to drink back in the hostel....big mistake.....I actually think somebody had replaced the wine with strawberry cordial.

The next day we said bye to Helen and Fergus in Sau Paulo (finally my liver can have a rest.......) and took the first of our mammoth bus journeys to the Iguazu falls.

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