Blogs from Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

From Foz we headed to Brazil’s Southern Pantanal. The Pantanal is a vast wetland that covers much of inland and central Brazil, staying on a cattle ranch we spent a few days getting up close and personal with the Brazilin wildlife. Heading out on horseback we traversed the ranch viewing an amazing amount of birdlife in the tree tops, hundreds of macaws and parakeets, some toucans, kingfishers, storks, kites and hawks. On night safaris we hoped for jaguars but were happy to see ocelot, capybara and giant ant eaters. When not out viewing the wildlife there was a huge pool, amazing food, cold beers…… From the Pantanal it was a short drive to Bonito – described as the ecotourism capital of Brazil. Surrounding Bonito are crystal clear rivers, natural springs and caves. We spent a couple ... read more

Day 90 We arrived in Paraty at 2am, and managed to find our hostel without too much trouble and checked into our dorm room at Backpackers House hostel. It was stifflingly hot and uncomfortable, but we were so tired we managed to get a fairly good nights sleep before having a fantastic breakfast at around 9am. After breakfast we took a 30 minute bus to Laranjeiras, followed by an hour long stroll through some pretty woodland to a beautiful, and pretty-much deserted beach. We met some South Africans on the way and spent a great day at the beach with them. Mid-afternoon we took a speedboat from the beach back to the bus stop before heading straight to a cool little bar for some delicious (pint sized!) caipirinhas, including some that were made with Gabriela Cachaca ... read more

Ilha Grande has been such an increible experience. There was a really large group of us that hung out together which was great and the island itself was such a chilled out place to be. We got a boat off the island and then a mini van took us to Parati. Our back tire blew out along the way so we were stood on the roadside for a while. The journey took about 4 hours in total. Once in Parati the 3 of us traveling together where a little underwhelmed by the town. There is an old colonial part to the town which is quite nice, but after 10 minutes we'd seen pretty much all of it. There are loads of things to do around just out of town - kayaking, beachesand horseback riding but we ... read more

De reis naar Paraty verloopt hetzelfde als de reis naar Ilha Grande: met de boot en vervolgens met z’n allen in de mini-van. Deze keer is het busje iets minder luxe en ruim waardoor alle tassen bovenop het dak moeten. Op het laatste moment besluiten we onze backpacks toch nog even in de flightbags te doen. Niet veel later blijkt dat een goede zet te zijn geweest: al na vijf minuten begint het flink te regenen. Als we in Paraty de tassen uit de fightbags halen, blijken ze hun werk goed te doen: de tassen zijn keurig schoon en droog gebleven. Op de boot heeft Tijs meer dan 10 hostels gebeld om te vragen of ze een private room beschikbaar hadden. Helaas krijgt hij telkens nul op het rekest. Waarom alle hostels elke keer volgeboekt zijn, ... read more