Paraty - 05-07 Jan 2014

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Sunday 5^th January (Odyssey Day 58)







Cook group 7 this morning, which is myself along with Donna and Glen. Since we are hoping to make it to Paraty for a late lunch, we won’t have to do anything else cooking wise until leaving Rio.







The roads this morning were good roads, very quiet since it is a Sunday. We made it to within just 25km of Paraty at lunch time before having to stop along with the locals as the bridge had washed away last night. A spectacular inconvenience as this meant we had to backtrack through Sao Paulo and add about 350km to our journey.







By the time we arrived in Paraty it was well after 2000 instead of 1300. Made for a very long day and even after dropping us off near the hotel, Simon had to then continue on as he is keen to get Ithaca to Rio where he can have some work done on her.







Emma had managed to get some last minute accommodation in the town, since without Ithaca we can’t camp as we wouldn’t be able to carry the tents with us when we leave. Most of the guys are in a 6 bed dorm at the hotel, with Tee, Le, Anne and Ellie also sharing a room at the hotel. All the rest of us are at a house owned by the hotel a couple of blocks away.







I’m in a room with Danielle and Wayne, and at least we have a bathroom in our room, which not all of them do. Apparently Paraty ran out of water yesterday – yes that’s right, the entire town ran out of water, even though the bridge washed out just 25km down the road! So we won’t be doing any complaining at all.







A group of us walked down the road to have dinner in town. Caprinha’s are not my favourite drink but I had to try the passionfruit one. Passionfruit makes everything taste better, but it’s still not enough to get me to buy another Caprinha no matter how long we stay in Brazil for! I think I’ll stick to beer in this country.







I did also manage to get some washing done – it’s the most I have accumulated all trip. So much easier when you just have to do a couple of things each time. Much cheaper than getting it washed as well. It’s not really a lot of money each time, but all those little expenses add up and I’d rather do my own washing, and have a nice dinner now and then with the money saved.















Monday 6^th January (Odyssey Day 59)







We have two full days in Paraty and it seems to be a good town to just walk around. Breakfast is at the hotel where half the group are staying, so we had to go out for that.







The day was free for everyone to spend as they wished and I spent most of it in various café’s as it was just too hot to be outside for long during the day.







We met up in the evening to go for a group meal for dinner. It was one of those restaurants that you pay by weight from the buffet. Quite a good selection of food and most of us went out for a couple drinks afterward. The town was just nice to walk through though the cobblestone are uneven and a bit slippery when wet. It has a lovely charm to it and it is clean and easy to find your way around through the narrow streets.















Tuesday 7^th January (Odyssey Day 60)







This morning most of the group went out on a boat for a day of swimming and sun. I elected to spend the day walking around the town and taking photos. I ended up meeting the boat group at the beach when I walked in that direction in the late afternoon and so joined them for a while. It is nice to have a beach to relax on again, especially when the weather is so nice.







A lot of the little shops are strange little souvenir places. You don’t always know the shop is even there until you go inside. There was lots of art and woodworks I found. You can generally watch them as they work on various things in the shops.







A group of us went out for dinner though we ended up splitting up to eat different things. I went to a lovely place with Joanna, Steve and Mike and we had huge portions of food for a very good price. Joanna and I took advantage of the chance to have some very nicely cooked fish.

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Photos

Driving Day
Some beautiful views on our way to Paraty

Paraty
Waiting to check in after a long day

Paraty
Exploring Paraty

Paraty
Beautiful little town

Paraty
White buildings, blue decorations and cobbled streets

Paraty
Lou and Hannah having fun