Paraty

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Paraty - prounounced Para-chi. What a little heaven on earth - and it rained all bar 10 minutes of our 48 hours here. I can´t imagine what it is like with the sun out!

Driving towards the coast from Sao Paulo really made my heart beat a little faster. The scenery was spectacular dark green rivers weaving around the lucious mountains and then glimpses of the ocean. Aaaahhhhhhh!

I can´t even remember what time we arrived but it´s not important anyways - the place we stayed was really cool - hammocks on every balcony! We wandered in to town to check it out. What a lovely little place. The marina is filled with brightly coloured schooners and sailing boats. The streets of the old part of town are for foot traffic only - which is a good thing because you could break your neck on the uneven cobbled roads - I wouldn´t like to wear high heels out on a Saturday night! There is old men selling cakes on trolleys in the street for next to nothing and plenty of galleries and boutique gift shops, a real tourist destination!

We had a group dinner which was ok - nothing spectacular in terms of food! And a few drinks. Paraty is reknowned for having good seafood so I when I ordered stuffed crab and mashed crab came out I was kind of dissappointed! We headed back to the hotel via the local hostel which seemed to be the place to be - they had a band (with another accordian) which was really cool and the place was filled to the brim with foreigners so we got to chat to a few other tour groups which was really nice! I headed home about 2am and left Nic with a group of Aussies to hang out with. She came home shoeless and cameraless, but we are trying to be very proud of her for lasting 3 weeks without losing anything. Not to mention I made her hand her wallet over to me before I left as we had both been to the ATM and cashed up for Rio and she had only put a new memory card in her camera in Sao Paulo so it´s only a few photos that we have lost!

There was the option of doing a boat tour the following day but I ended up pulling out - it was still raining. Besides the town is so pretty, I felt like just having a wander and a bit of time to myself to reflect on the past few weeks - it´s been so intensely busy! A few of the other guys on tour decided to opt out of boating also and we all went for lunch together after I bumped into them in the local coffee shop. I can´t remember the name of the place we went to for lunch but the food was AMAZING we had a wonderful fish stew dish with rice called Moqueca de peixe , it´s a traditional Brazilian dish that John (from the tour) had read about in a book on Brazil which was followed by some beautifully fresh calamari! Yummmmm!

Afterwards we headed back to the coffeee shop and I had my first mocha since arriving in SA. My second coffee also - looks like I´ve squashed that addiction 😉 It was the prettiest mocha I have ever seen! All layered and stuff, I´ll put a photo up!

I met with the others after the boat and we had some drinks - poor Murray from our group had had an awful day (bloody women) so we decided the best plan of action was to drown his sorrows. By 4 in the morning, after a few tamborine and harmonica lessons (from the guy who worked at our hostel) later I decided I had definitely drowned Murray´s sorrows and went straight to bed 😉 We were woken by Mark (tour leader) telling us not to mention that we were responsible for singing ´kolling me softly´ with the tamborine at 2 in the morning to Irida (our token bogan Aussie) as she had already stated that she would most certainly be killing whoever it was that was singing and playing drums at 2 in the morning not very softly!

The next morning we were up VERY early for the bus to Rio.

I´ve been in Rio 3 days now but it is CRAZY here! Can´t wait to fill you in when things settle down - it´s a fabulous place!

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Comments

[Narelle]

Hi my gorgeous girls, loving your travel stories cant wait to hear about the bits you can't put in black and white. I miss you soooo much Kell it feels like you have been gone don't know how I am going to go when I go to Saudi. You keep safe now love you xxxxooooo

[Fee]

Carnivale??
Hi Kelbel Hope you're behaving yourself - can't wait to hear all about Carnivale... Mum said something about blue glitter body paint and a cowboy hat?? Love Fee xx

[Ian Brown]

Keep up the good work kelly. It's good to have some idea of whats happening and where you are. Look after the birthday girl this week.