Paraty & Ilha Grande

---

Still sore from the previous overnight bus myself and another girl Jenny thought we´d be a bit clever and upgraded to a first class bus for the trip to Sao Paulo, the first leg of what would be 24 hours travelling to Paraty. Seriously worth it. We had a 3 hour wait at Sao Paulo´s mega bus terminal. Another 5 hours of bus to get to Paraty, on which we saw our first good looking person so far in Brazil. Paraty is a beautiful little town with very pretty but highly impractical cobble-stone streets, which you could easily break an ankle on. I found out it´s also a World Heritage site. Paraty is where the tour´s love of caipirinha´s really came to the fore. Our first night out and we went to a brazilian buffet restaurant, all you can eat for about 9 Reales and it was soooooo tasty. Real food, and quite healthy too, which was fab as i´m pretty sure i´m turning into ham and cheese on a white bread roll (every single place we have stayed serves this for breakfast). Turns out Paraty was holding a Religious festival that night with a rock concert that started at 10 pm in the main square (a bit random for a Monday?). It was certainly a boozy affair. Not sure who the band was but we witnessed plenty of teen girls screaming at the side of the stage. Made it afterwards into a bizarre smoke-filled bar, so hazy you could barely see and i of course launched into a rant about how i hate how smoky the bars and restaurants are here in Sth America to turn round and clock a smoke machine spewing out the offending haze. Good one Clare.
Our last day in Paraty was v. low key as we had a free day to catch up on our internet, washing, etc. followed with a bbq and lots of caipirinhas.

Brazil so far is awesome. The landscape is v. tropical, reminding me of Thailand. The people are pretty cool, although can´t say the same for their fashion sense... Women with too-tight trousers with mega muffin tops & crop tops seem to be all the rage.

Next day we headed to Ilha Grande. We bussed up to Angra and took a boat across to the island. It is simply gorgeous.. There are no cars or banks on the island so we stocked up on cash before we sailed. The second day the whole group went out on a day trip on a boat and visited several gorgeous beaches, the ocean was so blue and clear, the weather was perfect and they treated us to a bbq lunch and free-flowing caipirinha´s (can you sense a pattern here?). Later that night, back on the island, we were all a bit dazed and confused and had a sensible early night.

We spent three nights in total on Ilha Grande and could´ve stayed there for much longer. Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery. A special mention needs to go to all the old men with massive paunches just wearing their speedos, sitting in bars, walking through the streets. Thank you, you have provided me with many hours of amusement. There are cute pooches all over the island. One guy in our tour seems to get followed everywhere by them, they just love him. I have named him the Pied Piper of Pooches.

Tomorrow we are heading to Rio de Janeiro! I can´t even begin to explain how excited I am about going there!!!!

Will put some photos up soon.

---

Photos

Leaving Argentina after the Falls
Look closer, see the Official knocking on window telling me to put my camera away!

Paraty
Cake stands everywhere... yum!

Paraty
Cachaca Museum. We had a wee sample.