Sao Paolo, Santos, Paraty, Ihla Grande and Rio again!

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Dave blogging here... after a late night at the wedding and a game of penos back at the hotel (not to mentioning having to share Pedros room!) we were up early to get the transfer back into Sao Paolo, everyone was in a good mood but very sleepy from the night before so not much was discussed on our way. We dropped Rudy and Cintia off at the airport which we thought would be the last time we saw them for some time but they will reappear in a later episode.

So then it was off to the Vila Madalena hostel in SP for me, Olragh, Kev, Emma and Pedro. Rory and Jessie were travelling back later on and staying in a hotel elsewhere in SP. The hostel was grand, we were all in bunks in small dorms of four beds. The owner had lots to chat to us about telling us the different things that were on around the area each night of the week. We were all still quite tired so we got some nap time in and showers etc before we went to meet Rory and Jess in the restaurant (the same Italian place we had eaten in the day before the wedding). There was still a bit of time though for a bit of pool on the extremely lop-sided table and for Pedro to cut himself open playing Barbie ball, it´s a man´s game! Luckily Emma is a trained nurse and was able to patch him up. Quote Peter on receiving sympathy from Orlagh "Emma´s my nurse and you´re my Mommy".

We had a great night at the restaurant where the food was great again, Pedro dressed in full cowboy uniform (?) and Rory practised his phrase-book driven Portuguese with the waiters (though they told him Orlagh´s unaided Portuguese was far better). After food we went to the bar at Rory´s hotel and had a few beers before saying bye to Rory and Jess and heading back to the hostel to hit the hay. There were more emotional goodbyes the next day as the Kev, Emma and Pedro got a taxi to the airport for their journey home.

We had a bus to Santos to catch that evening so we used our few free hours to check out the Banespa tower in SP where you can go up to the top floor and see views of the city for free.

The bus trip to Santos had some fantastic views of atlantic forest and mountains. Arriving into Santos also we saw the football stadium with big muriels of their current team including the famous Neymar. Pele also had a place on the wall, I think he´s there for good.

Santos was quiet and we didn´t get up to too much there as we were only there overnight. We went out for dinner down by the beach which was much flatter and muddier than Rio´s beaches, quite similar to Sandymount beach. Needless to say there were football matches going on up and down the beach. The following morning we went down to the beach and went for a token jog in an effort to shed some pounds from all the beer that was drank in Rio. With the help of one of the guys from the hostel we figured our best move to get to Paraty was to bus it back to SP and get a transfer to Paraty from there.

We had two nights in Paraty which was great as we had much more time to see the place. It´s a great little town with lots to do, kayaking, boat trips etc. We plumped for a Jeep tour to the waterfalls in the surrounding forest on the full day we had there. We got picked up by the at 1030 by our guide Vagner and he had four other passengers in the Jeep, David, Adam, Jenny and their South American tour guide Gey. Our first stop we trekked through some fantastic Atlantic Forest to come out at a waterfall with a Tarzan-esque rope allowing you to swing out over the river and back to safety, or if you were up for it, to let go and swim back to safety (needless to say we let go!). Our fellow travellers weren´t feeling too adventurous on the first stop so it was just me, Orlagh and Vangner that took part. Our second stop was where you could get a "massage" from the waterfall by sitting underneath it and letting the water thunder of your back. Next stop was the most enjoyable where you could climb in behind a waterfall and sit in the tiny cave surrounded by water coming down around you. Also at this stop were massive stone beds in the river where the water was spread so thin you could sit and slide down the rock into the pool below. We all took part in this and it was great craic. After this was lunch and a rest at another massive (but dry) rock in the river where I lay down and had a snooze for half an hour while Adam (a photography enthusiast) showed Orlagh how to take good close up pictures on her camera - check out some of the photos! Last but not least was a trip to a Cachaça distillery were they showed us how Cachaça is made and allowed us to sample the different types. We invested in a bottle of the Banana flavoured cachaça which hardly lasted a couple of nights as it was so tasty.

That night we went out for dinner and stopped of in "Paraty 33", a bar where they had live brazilian music, on our way home.

The next day we were on the road again and made our way to Angre Dos Reis buy bus to catch the ferry to Ilha Grande. Ilha Grande is covered in Atlantic Forest and has no cars or Roads, only trails around the islands and Taxi boats you can get to the next beach if you need to. We stayed in the Overnativa Green hostel here which had a nice crowd staying there. Our first full day there we took the trek to Lopes mendes - a two hour trek over some steep hills to a beach elsewhere on the island. The trek was nice but it rained cats and dogs the whole trip out to the beach! thankfully we were prepared and were wearing our hiking boots and rain ponchos (even if we looked ridiculous!). We ran into two Belgian girls (Kim and Vierla) staying in our hostel on the way and they were trekking in their flip flops!! Fair play to them but it looked difficult! We walked with them to one of the beaches along the way where they stopped for a bite, we´d packed our lunch so we soldiered on. We finally got to Lopes Mendes and the rain stopped (thank God) and the beach was beautiful, though I´m sure would be a lot nicer on a calm day. On our way back we met the girls again (still heading for Lopes Mendes) and they were worried it would get dark on their way back if they kept going. We lent them a torch as we knew we´d make it back in time and it was lucky we did as they informed us the next day that they badly needed it in the end!

Day two in Ilha Grande and we went on a snorkelling trip. It was a great day weather-wise and we´d good fun snorkelling and having a few cans of beer on the boat with our fellow tourists. There were some friendly Brazilians and a nice German family (great to speak English!!) on board. Abraao (the town on Ilha Grande) was hopping that night as there was a national holiday on that day so we saw lots of entertainment going on in the streets that night.

The next day we travelled back to Rio as it was on our way to Casimiro and we´d enjoyed our time so much there that we said we´d spend another coupe of days there. We stayed in the Lighthouse hostel beside the Casa6 hostel we had stayed in our first two nights in Rio. Unfortunately the first day in rained heavily all day so we hung out in the hostel playing cards with the other guests, venturing out only to see the Man Utd Versus Man City game (enough said about that!!). We managed to get in contact with Rudy who was staying almost next door to us as it turned out. So we ventured out in the rain that night with Rudy and Cintia for a few drinks and it was a good catch up and chance to reminisce about the wedding. The following day in Rio was nicer and we went down to the beach for most of it. We said goodbye to Copacabana and Ipanema that evening as we were up early to catch our bus to Casimiro.

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Photos

View from the Banespa Tower in Sao Paolo
This tower is still a working bank, and they built it based on the empire state building. Really tall.

getting ready to swing into the water
Paraty

Wagner and Gi
Wagner was our guide for the day and Gi was the guide with the other group from GAP adventures. Two mad lads

Frog
There were loads of these at the water falls

A bromeliad flower
These plants are really popular in the atlantic forest There´s loads of different colors, but they all have that same shape

Leaf cutter ant
These ants don´t actually eat the leaves. THey take them back to their nest and use them to cultivate a fungus which they eat

Butterfly
I can´t count the number of different butterflies we saw. And some of them are HUGE

Another butterfly
If you look closely you can see a number 80 on his wing. These butterflies have either no 80, 88 or 00 on their wings, its a natural pattern

A typical street in Paraty
Temple bar cobbles have nothing on these. Its actually painful to walk on the roads. Even in flats. The houses are really colonial and there were lovely restaurants and bars. Real touristy though and v expensive!

Comments

[Caroline]

The photos are amazing. Really looks and sounds like the trip of a life time.

[ann reddington]

As comment title oops!

[Samysosa]

The fun of the cachoeiras!
Hahaha seeing those pics makes me remember how much fun it was to be there! Thank you soooo much for posting this, it makes me happy just to remember how I got there and the people I meet at the Misti Chill, it was awesome, Paraty is such a great place! Thanks again!!