The start of the g adventures leg of our trip

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Today saw us meet up with some new travelling companions as we join G adventures on a tour across Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. A good mi of Aussies, Swiss, italian, Israeli, Germans and brits.plus a Venezuelan tour guide , Francisco - a good guy.

A gentle start with dinner in Rio then next morning a coach and ferry (well large motor boat) to our first stop, the beautiful sunny Ilhe Grande. Except the weather had turned and it was wet and cold ( well cold for here anyway). Oh and I managed to lose another sweatshirt on the bus.

Next day we found a hike to a waterfall up some fairly good hills (128 stairs for those of you with fitbits) and worked up an appetite for lunch. Some of the guys went on a night kayak trip to see the plankton glow in the dark but otherwise we got to know one another over the hike, dinners and beers.

Next off to Paraty where we were told the sun was, but it wasn’t. However this is a bigger town and the centre is completely closed off to traffic with a very colonial look and feel. To say the streets were cobbled would be an understatement. The cobbles were each about 10 inches and certainly not uniformly set. Have too much to drink and you would come a cropper on this floor.

The middle of each street was lower than the sides because the town floods every high tide and it becomes a runaway as the tide recedes.

But a beautiful town day and at night.

A free walking tour oriented the majority of the group but Sahil and I found a bar to watch what became the debacle of Man Utd v Spurs- enough said about that!?

Most of the guys went on a jeep tour of a couple of distilleries and waterfalls however Sue and I wandered the town while there was some sun and I bought another sweatshirt - let’s see how long this on lasts

Taxi ride up to a caichasa distillery and a walk up to another waterfall before heading back to town for lunch on the beach - very simple and good.

Early evening wandered the town with Sue taking pictures some of which you can see on her website, eventually.

Following morning 11 if us wandered up to the local fort to jump into a private boat to sail the islands off Paraty. Fantastic weather and a great group just chillin’ swimmin’ jumpin’ and sunbathin’ - visited Ronaldinho’s island (he wasn’t in) and other small beaches on private islands. Interesting note is that in Brazil folk can buy an island but any beach remains public.
A long day, but well worth getting out & was sunny!

Once back Sue & I headed back into town for some photos then early dinner and bed - we had a 6.00am start the next morning as we head to Iguazu Falls.

More about them and other wet adventures another time - chao.

PS you can find Sue's images (albeit images uploaded slightly behind the blog) from our trip here http://slrphotographic.co.uk/gallery_739252.html

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Comments

[Graham]

Take it easy ...
… on the number of new friends you are making. You had too many friends to begin with!