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Published: March 19th 2010
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Hi Guys,
Wow, I am actually managing to write another blog before the 10 day mark. Thought i should take advantage of the internet situation.
So, we are currently in a gorgeous little brazilian coastal town called Paraty (pronounced pah-rah-chi). I have to tell you ... portugese is actually a wee difficult. Sure it looks like spanish when its written, but its pronounced all funny and hard and nasally - like french. Ive taken to just apologising before i begin speaking and then using a cross between english and spanish with the odd portugese word thrown in (thankyou/goodnight/very good/etc).
So, boy did we have an adventure leaving floripa. We actually managed to get out of the place alive, and on the right day, and make our bus to Sao Paolo on time. We like to travel on the overnight buses, because then it saves us a nights accommodation. The bus travel is not at all cheap here. A 10 hr bus ride could cost you around $60US (minimum). Not really the cheap cheap prices as described in the lonely planet.
Side Note: So far we are finding the lonely planet to be a bit of a crock.
They say things like "budget $35 US a day for brazil". Yeh right. Maybe 35 a day if we slept on the street, ate 1 meal a day, and only bought ourselves 1 beer a night. In other words, we take the lonely planet 'recommended daily budget amount', times it by three, and then add whatever we consume in alcoholic beverages.
Anyways, so we were on our night bus from flori, which was supposed to take 10 hours. Except 5 hours in, we hit massive traffic and managed to move about 5km in 4 hours. Crazy - bumper to bumper traffic on a sunday night at 11pm. Anywho, our bus was pretty empty, only about 6 other people on it, so hayden and i had spread out. I was sleeping on the two front seats, and hayden was sleeping on the two seats behind me. And we had our backpacks tucked under our seatsso as to keep an eye on them.
At about 5am I woke up to hayden yelling out words like 'what the F do you think you are doing you dirty C". And amidst my groginess see him strangling this big black guy in a
chokehold. And then I saw my backpack pulled out from under my seat into the middle of the aisle. Basically, Hayden (for some psychic reason) had woken up to see this guy sitting in the seats directly across the aisle from me, leaned over me, with my bag pulled out trying to break through the padlock. I should mention here that this backpack held our wallets, passports, ipods and netbook. Haydy had woken up, grabbed the guy in a choke hold and thats when i woke up.
SO i grabbed my bag and checked to make sure nothing was missing, and luckily nothing was. Also luckily we always keep the main section padlocked. Always!! Hayden was swearing and yelling at the theif and telling him to get back to his seat, but he kept sitting there pretending he was sleeping and didnt know what was happening.
Maybe hayden didnt look scary enough because the guy just sat there and acted dumb. But i was also fricking pissed off. I yelled at him to get back to his seat, and get out of my sight. So he got straight up and moved back to his seat. Then i pulled
out my mace and held it up as if to spray it in his face. He started cowering so we told him to shut the hell up and stay away from us. And then he left us alone the rest of the ride.
Pretty crazy stuff. 5 mins later (obviously wide awake) we were discussing what could have happened - i.e he had a knife or something. But luckily it didnt turn out that way.
Anyways. We ended up in Sao Paolo 6 hours later then the original time, then waited around for our bus to paraty.
On the bus ride to paraty we got stopped twice by police, who boarded the bus, searched everyone's belongings and passports. We were told by some locals that they probably got word of some dealers and were doing thorough checks. It was quite random.
Sooo, our first 2 days we stayed in this gorgeous little fishing village called Trindade (trin-dah-zhay). We stayed in this random hostel set into the 'jungle'. Cute, but shit loads of critters, whose main objective was to bite/annoy/hover around us. This hostel was also the central repository for every hippy this side of brazil. Hayden
and i didnt fit in because we didnt have dreadies and we didnt want to sit around the large communal table smoking weed all night and talking crap. yes yes, what is wrong with us ... i know. Oh and their mainlling point (it was on ALL their advertising) was "delicious home made breakfast". Yeh whatever, brekkie was stale bread, and cake. Worst brekkie this whole trip.
Actually funnily enough, i must have jinxed myself after our last blog, saying that we were both healthy etc. I left floripa with a sore throat ... 30 hours on buses with recirculating a/c and smoking bus drivers turned it into a chest infection, which has now progressed into bronchitis. Awesome. (luckily i am a walking pharmacy).
So, anyways ...Trindade > beautiful beautiful beaches, and all these natural sites that you have to jungle bash to get to. Little waterfalls, pristine beaches, natural rock pools. Really pretty scenery. And Prato Fite meals that cost 10 reals ($6 aussie) and is all you can eat rice/beans/salad and your choice of meat/seafood. Bloody Brilliant.
2 days was enough though, and we moved on to Paraty where we are now. Paraty is so
cute. Its an old colonial town, also a Unesco Heritage town. Cobbled stone paths everywhere. It is so uneven that you actually can not look and walk at the same time. You need to constantly watch every step. And then stop. Stand still. Look around, take a picture. And then look at your feet and continue walking. They have restaurants, bars, shops etc all set into these historic old buildings. Its just so cute.
Yesterday hayden and i went to a place where they had this awesome natural water slide. Just this big rock formation that goes for about 40m, and slopes downwards and ends in this big waterpool. It was heaps of fun.
And today we went on an island hopping cruise around the area. 5.5 hours, caiparinhas, beautiful turquiose clear water. Ahhhhh bliss.
Brazil is just amazing. so pretty, so relaxing, and very friendly people. Loving it.
Tomorrow we are off again though, and heading to ilha grande, which is an island just off the coast of Rio, supposed to be fabulous. Aiming to get into Rio probably Wednesday, and then it is party party time.
Sooo, we have a couple of pics
which i might upload now relevant to the other blogs. Its definitely nanna nap time for me now, feel so tired with the stupid bronchitis. Need to get better before Rio, as we are catching up with a few diff friends we have met along the way and will want to check out all Rio has to offer.
Alright guys, thats it from us for now. hope everyone is AWESOME!!
Miss you all
Hayds and Le
xxx
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