Party in Paraty

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Tuesday 15th April
I must be improving at this sleeping on transport lark... Although I kept feeling cold I 'slept' til 730, then dozed til 822 when I was woken by my phone buzzing... Winchester number, not sure who! 830am we stop for breakfast... See my egg sandwich cooked in front of me! Back on the bus for the last leg to Sao Paulo, hopefully arrive about 1130am, as our next bus to Paraty is 1pm!

Oh well, it's now 550pm and I'm STILL on a bus! We're not sure where the end is.. Maybe another hour. Thought we were getting here about 4pm. Other journey finally finished safely at 1210, Lila took us straight to check in for the next bus, which turned out to leave 1215! It was held for us and we left 1230. Bus is nice, and we watched 'Click' for the first part. Stopped soon after for lunch... Fast food! Around 5ish we came to a stop but still not Paraty but another food stop. We're still waiting! Oh, and it's raining... This is 3 days of beach. Oh well.

We made it to the hotel for about 7.20pm, in time for a nice shower before 8pm dinner. Dinner was expensive but incredibly tasty - real Thai food, with Mango Daquaris. It was raining a lot but we could see that the old streets had charm. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow, although have now booked to dive all day so not sure how much of them I´ll see!

Wednesday 16th April
Good sleep after that long bus journey! Could have slept longer but up in time to get my stuff ready for diving (nearly forgot my certification card, doh), breakfast, and then Lila took me to the meeting point. Except... we´d been told 9.30am at the shop, but it was 9am. They came back for me and by 10am we´re out on the boat. I´m diving with Olivier and his Discover Scuba clients... I am the most experienced passenger on the boat which is something new! Really can see how I´ve improved on the first dive when my air lasts 55 minutes (yes, I´m not too deep, but SO much better). Visibility is a bit poor but can see plenty of fish/starfish, etc. and it´s enjoyable none-the-less! Up for a break, some lunch, a bit of snorkelling as he takes another diver down, and then it´s my second dive. Again, a good dive and see a few more unusual fish in the other direction. Surface safely and we´re off, and Olivier drops me off into town by 4pm. Quick shower, and out to check out the Colonial Houses of Paraty. Beautiful cobbled streets and picturesque colours, so a few more photos for the album. Found a good Gelato shop (serve yourself icecream and then it´s costed by the kg), and meandered back to play Uno with Adriana and Mark.

It´s now 7.10pm and we´ll be heading out for dinner at 7.30pm. (You´ll also be pleased to hear that my tattoo has faded almost to nothing!). Afterwards there are plans to watch some locals dance (Adriana´s good at making the contacts), so it could be a late one! Everything looked quite expensive (or ex-y) for eats tonight, but I'd seen a cheap pizzaria earlier. No idea if it's any good but we went there. Tried Brazilian wine (yes: deserves its reputation as not good), olives, ham/mushroom pizza. Ok, not great, but finished off by Lime Cheesecake from a street vendor and a scoop of ice cream. Back round to the pub, and onto Dinho's Bar where a Capoera demonstration was to begin. Explained the difference between the 3 beats, then demonstrated the dances which were pretty impressive and bears a strong resemblance to breakdancing! Then we got a chance to join in... Up went Adriana! After was a live band and got asked up to dance something bordering on Ceroc. By midnight shattered after a long day, as were Linda/Shilpa so found way back to hotel, ignored the mess that is my bag and fell asleep.

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