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Published: September 8th 2011
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Tina writes During the night, Rob woke up at about 5am and jumped out of bed. It was still dark outside, so I thought he was sleep walking til he started shouting
‘oh shit, the wind has blown all our clothes away’. We had put the wet clothes on the banister railing of the balcony to dry but nothing holding them down. I nearly died cause most of my clothes were out there, clothes that had taken me months to pick for this trip (not for how they look, but more for practicality). We quickly got dressed and went out to run after our stuff. Luckily, all of it had blown onto the corridor, so we calmed down and got the washing line out and attached them to that instead. I was now pleased about the wind as it gave them a good chance of drying before we had to leave.
We caught the ferry (£2.50) at 10am back to the mainland and got straight on a bus (£3.50) to Paraty. It was an easy 2 hour journey but Rob had to sit on the floor as there were no other seats. As we arrived in Paraty, we weren’t
sure where to get off, so I asked the bus-ticket guy, who made some incoherent grunt at me, very unhelpful! Rob had got a seat for the last 20 mins of the journey and luckily the guy next to him spoke English and told us to get off the bus with him. When we got off he asked for the hostel address and took us there, asking people directions as we went as he wasn’t exactly sure where it was. Unless I am mistaken, he was a gay man who had clearly taken a liking to Rob. I was ignored and trailed behind the whole time. It was so kind of him to help us like this as I think it would have taken us ages to find it otherwise.
The hostel was right on the doorstep of the old town, which is what we came to see. We set out for wonder round the old town. No cars are allowed within it, so there are horse and carts going up and down the cobbled streets. I guess this is what Brazilian towns looked like back in the day (I’m not sure which day though). It was pretty but
not what I had expected. The surrounding town was very built up and geared towards tourists. Reminded me of a holiday resort in Greece. There so happened to be a festival taking place that week, and there was a concert that night. After a look around the town and a very bizarre dinner, we headed back to the hostel to try and get online. One of the criteria for choosing a hostel is their WiFi access. This one had it but for some reason their password did not work, so we couldn’t use our netbook, so no Skyping or uploading blogs. We decided we were too tired to stay up for the concert (which started at 10pm) and went to bed to watch some Grey’s Anatomy on the netbook (which we are thoroughly enjoying, thanks Colin).
I woke upnthe next day feeling a bit shit. I have a sore throat and stuff, so a cold on its way I’m guessing. Great! We had breakfast and headed out for a wander before our bus in the early afternoon. We went to the pharmacy and all the medication, including cough syrup, is behind the counter. I had to act out my
symptoms to the pharmacist by doing a wee cough and rubbing my throat with a pained look on my face. The festival was drawing to a close today and so there was a street parade. It consisted of the towns children, Military and emergency services.
We then headed to the bus station to catch our 6 hour bus to Sao Paulo (£35). That journey went in pretty quick. When we arrived at Sao Paulo, we decided to just miss it out and get straight on a bus to Foz do Iguacu (£61). This was a 15 hour bus journey! So in total we spent 21 hours on a bus. It saved on the accommodations costs for that night though. It actually wasn’t too bad and we slept for most of it.
So now we are in Foz do Iguacu to see the waterfalls. Next stop Argentina.
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