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Our first destination after Rio was the costal town of Buzios, made famous by Bridget Bardot during the 60´s, we believe??
Apparently known as Brazil's St Tropez the place consited of fancy bars and restaurants and a host of beautiful beaches. We stayed a couple of nights in the town which was blatently designed to bring in the foreign $$$!
After heading back to Rio for another footy match it was time to head South with our first point of call the picturesque Isle a Grande. An Island situated just off the coast about 3hrs bus journey south of Rio on Brazil´s Costa Verde (Green Coast). All along the Costa Verde you´ll find lush tropical forest meeting wonderful sandy beaches and Isle Grande was no exception. Despite it raining while we were there , we really liked Isle Grande with its small village of reasonably priced good restaurants and beaches. The locals were friendly especially the dog pictured, which followed us on a 5hr trek to the other side of the Island and back. A great warm up for the forthcoming Inca Trail!
Next it was the picturesque colonial town of Paraty. a real gem, a further 2hrs
bus ride south. The town dates back to the 1600´s where the Portugese used to ship Gold back to Portugal. The streets of the old town pictured was designed to allow sea water to flood in and clean the streets (badly cobbled with huge stones!). The physio in Rachael noticed that due to the uneven stoned streets all the locals seemed to have knee or ankle problems, so we decided to stay and set up a private physio practive - only kidding!
We were intending to head further down the coast however now appreciating the actual scale of Brazil we thought we´d head down to the Foz de Iguazu water falls, where we intended to cross into Argentina. We were informed that to do this we had to go by bus via Sao Paulo. We intended to catch a night bus, so during the day we took a boat trip to a few secluded beaches in the area. an enjoyable day, where we were fortunate to meet Rodorigo and Manuela, who were visiting from Sao Paulo.
After returning from the boat trip and finding the last bus was full, Rodorigo and Manuela kindly offered us a lift back
to Sao Paulo with them the following day.
Unknown to us all at the time Sao Paulo was experiencing troubles in the form of a criminal gang indiscrimately murdering police officers, setting fire to buses and attacking banks. Basically a city in chaos!
At this point we just want to say how grateful we are to our Brazilian friends, who ended up putting us up for two nights until the trouble settled down! Thankyou!!!!!
And so the journey continued with a 13hr overnight bus ride to Foz de Iguazu. The buses over here are awesome, fully reclining enornous seats which ensured Mike slept like a baby!
Well here we are staying on the Brazilian side of the falls, which are situated in a National park, full of wildlife, initially we visited the falls on the Brazilian side. The falls are breathtakingly beautiful and we would recommend a visit to anyone visiting the area!
When we arrived at the entrance to the National park on the Brazilian side, we took a short bus ride up to the start of the trail where you can walk right up to the falls. Here, Rachael made a new friend
Paraty
View from our breakfast tablein the form of what we thought was a Racoon at the time, but actually known as a Coati we think. Basically wild animal now terrorising the bus loads of tourists for their food. Quite amusing seeing it chase after Rachael´s bag of goodies!
The following day we took the opportunity to view the falls from the Argentinian side, which we agreed offers even more spectacular views right from the top! On the way back we were fortunate to spot a Toucan in the trees (pictured).
Sadly our time in Brazil has come to an end, with another long bus journey to Buenos Aires awaiting us tomorrow.
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Judy
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Foz de Iguazu
This blog is brilliant!You`re certainly giving us loads of information.How do you remember all this info while you are doing so much?Oh well,you have younger brains than us. Hee hee.The pics of the falls are awesome!Keep us informed and be safe.