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Published: March 29th 2011
Paraty, Brazil
Loved the old town..Monday 14th March - Sunday 20th March
We arrived in Paraty still trembling from the roller coaster bus ride and bumped into two other fellow travellers with their map out looking for the same hostel as us.
Paraty is a colonial village, on the coast 4 hours south of Rio, with cobble streets so uneven you have to adopt the rock hopping approach. We instantly liked the feel of the place – the sun was out and it was hot, the cobbled streets were bustling with families enjoying the Sunday afternoon markets and restaurants playing live music which spilled out onto the streets...... and us with acai in hand (the delicious sorbet like berry drink we've come to love from Brazil.)
The main draw of Paraty is the beaches, but there are also a number of waterfalls and rainforest on the doorstep which we were keen to check out, especially as we'd heard you can slide down a huge slippery rock into rock pools below... so we did just that to kick the week off!
Our jeep tour took us to a number of different waterfalls and a few cachaca distilleries for tasting. Swimming in the waterfalls
Paraty, Brazil
The rock slide, with Chris on it... awesome! was brilliant, but the rock slide really was the best thing ever! Ha ha..
We were feeling particulary smug about the great deal we'd bagged 'buy a jeep trip get a boat trip for free' (which our fellow traveller friends seemed not to know about).. until we arrived at the docks with our picnic and ticket for the boat, only to find our 'praia vermelha' schooner barely afloat with no one in sight. In true Brazilian style there was a bit of fuss and it turned out that a different 'praia vermelha' complete with recent name change was to be our voyager for the day... smug smile returned.
A great trip taking in a number of beaches and swim stops. Chris was sitting on the edge of the boat when the captain decided to push him overboard into a shoal of fish followed by a handful of rice which made them all go mad around him! Chris loved it!
We mentioned in the last blog that it was raining when we left Paraty... well it rained and rained and didn't stop, and we had to make a run for the bus regardless.. totally soaked, but looking forward
to settling down onboard and sleeping for the entire 6 hour journey to Sao Paolo – if only that were the case... In a nutshell, 6 hours turned into 11 hours due to a replacement bus being required before we'd even left because the electric door had a mind of it's own. It was hilarious, even in our wet, tired state to watch it flick back and forth while people tried to pick a moment to escape the bus.
What wasn't so funny, was waking up to find a tree had fallen across the road in the middle of the forest, and needed to be removed with chainsaws before we could carry on. Oh yeah, and did we mention the pikey who thought he'd hit gold foraging under our seat for our bag, only to discover it was actually Chris's ankle..... and the madman (complete with spider tattoo covering his bald head) who walked up and down the bus regularly punching the roof and shouting.
We chose to spend only a day in Sao Paolo (so excited we were about the next 15 hour bus ride to come). We spent this wandering some of the city streets, eating
lunch in the popular and impressive fruit and food market, and climbing the HSBC tower, which offered some amazing views of a city with a population of 19 million and more sky scrapers that can ever be counted... it is huge!
Pleased (and disappointed at the same time) to say that the bus ride to Foz do Iguacu was seemless and uneventful – I'd go as far to say, very comfortable.
We arrived on Thursday morning, dumped our bags at the bus station and headed straight to Iguazu falls (the Brazilian side) with some kiwi friends we met on the bus. You could sense the excitement of everyone who was headed in that direction, but with 275 waterfalls all in one place, what's not to be!
Thursday and Friday were our 'Iguazu Falls days'... days of pure amazement! (You'll notice this when you look at the photos.. sorry probably one too many for your liking, but we couldn't put the camera down!!) The Brazilian side gave great views from up high, but the Argentinian side felt like we were amongst it all. At one point we were, when we took the speed boat to the base and
Iguazu, Argentina
Our chill out hostel... felt the force of the water on our heads as the spray fired at us from above. What a rush! The pure power of 13 million litres of water spilling over PER SECOND!!!
The river feeding the falls is over 2km wide, and a steel walkway takes you 1.2km across to meet the 'devils throat'.. the most impressive of the falls. We did this under moonlight and then the next day in the sunshine.. so memorable... and as I said on my facebook status.. you all MUST come and see this some day.
The weekend was time to sit by the pool at our hostel with some friends, and participating in some late night samba show with a man in a sequin vest and his two busty Brazilian beauties.. choo choo choo choo choo... (yes, that's what Chris was told to say whilst one of the ladies was shaking her booty in his face.. wifey was there with the camera!)..
Happy Times.. and lots of sunshine..
x Keri & Chris.
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ma n pa
non-member comment
Brazil adventures
Hi K n C, Just read your amazing adventures since you left Rio. It seems like you are in another world to us or an Indiana Jones movie. We are envious of your experiences and maybe we could travel to South Ameria some day to have the same wonderful sights. It sounds like back packing may be the way to go, but maybe too much for the "old folk"....Dad says, is there an age limit for the hostels accommodation and do they have "rest staions" on these hiking trips ???? The photos are fantastic.We have now been able to get straight on the blog through your last email. Hope this keeps up.Looking forward to the next one. All going swell back here and things are looking up with mum's health. The days are still warm and sunny with much rain at night. Bye for now, Stay safe. Love always, Ma n Pa XXXOOO