Brazil continued

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After the madness of Rio and Carnival we were eager to get to our next stop, Paraty, which is a small coastal town on Brazil´s Costa Verde, 4 hours by bus from Rio. It is a very old colonial little town with cobbled streets which the locals still use horses and carriages to navigate.
Rio was amazing but it is such a full on place that we were really looking forward to getting out of the city and chilling out a bit on the coast. A couple of hours out of Rio on the bus and the entire landscape changed completely to lush green vegetation, palm trees, white beaches and sparkling blue water. The sun was shining and we felt the stresses of Rio slip away. It was unbelievable that all this could exist a short distance away from the city.

We arrived in Paraty eager to get to the beach, so we hurried to our hostel (managing to get lost even in such a small little town) and quickly changed into our bikinis and got our suncream on. The sun was shining brightly and it was really hot. However, literally the second we stepped out of our room it started to absolutely pour with rain...it was like something out of a movie. We absolutely could not believe our luck, the whole journey down the coast it had been absolutely beautiful. The rain seemed to be following us everywhere!!! The day peaked when on the way back to the hostel that night Rachael managed to leap into a gian heap of horse shit on the road! Although it did give her the excuse to buy some Haviana flip flops the next day, which are all anyone wears in Brazil.

The next day we met up with some friends we had met in Rio and we all went on a boat trip around the coast. Again it was absolutely pouring with rain...when we got to the port it was like being inside a cloud it was so misty and raining so much. Not exactly how we had imagined Brazil! Even so the boat was really cool with a massive covered area where you could lie down with loads of cushions, and there was a bar and a live Brazilian woman singer playing the guitar. Luckily we managed to escape the rain cloud and the sun came out and we finally got to swim in the sea and sunbathe on idyllic isolated white beaches, it was blissful. Rachael even plucked up the courage to go snorkelling and look at the fish, but then chickened out her fear of fish being too strong, so maybe later on in the trip! It was an amazing, relaxing day and we were so happy to get some sun, it was the perfect antidote to a week spent in Rio.

The next day we decided to get a bus to another coastal town, Trinidade, which was a 40 minute bus ride away from Paraty. The bus was absolutely packed with travellers and locals looking for some beach time, we had to stand up the whole way wedged behind 2 sweaty middle-aged shirtless fat English men, great! But it was so worth it - the beaches were absolutely stunning, definitely the nicest beaches either of us had ever been to. We walked to a further beach which we had heard was the best one, so the 4 of us were pretty much the only foreigners. We stuck out so badly, our glaringly white skin against the tanned Brazilians - oh well!! Another incredible day living the dream.

That evening we got an overnight bus to Sao Paulo, where we were planning to catch another bus to take us to Foz de Iguassu to see the Iguassu Falls. The journey started off okay, we got the bus to Sao Paulo without problems and actually got quite a good nights sleep on the luxurious bus with reclining seats and foot rests and air conditioning. We arrived at the bus station at 4.30am, which was pretty hideous. The ticket offices didn't open until 8am so we sat around waiting. When they did open we discovered the next bus was not until 6.30pm that evening and so we had to sit in the bus station for the entire day. We considered going to look around the city but it was raining, again, and we had our massive bags and decided it was probably better to stay there. As we hadn´t been planning to spend the day at a bus station we had arrived without any food or water, so had to buy everything there at absolutely extortionate prices (we even had to pay every time we needed to use the toilets). A hellish day. Although Rachael did perfect sitting up napping in the very upright seats, which involved leaning on her small rucksack bent sideways. She did dribble quite a lot which was obviously quite embarassing.

We were so looking forward to just getting on the overnight 15 hour long bus just so we could have some comfy seats and sleep properly. Actually what followed was probably the worst nights either of us have ever had. Thankfully we had each other or I think we would not have survived! We had made the decision to go with the bus company that was half the price of the other one...turned out we were on a bus full of locals, all men, on a bus with normal unreclining seats, no air conditioning, locked windows and which absolutely stank. We looked so ridiculously out of place, everyone was staring at us and laughing. Some of the men seemed to be very dodgy characters, and a few got on carrying containers of gasoline...God knows why. We were both so freaked out we clung onto all our posessions afraid we would be robbed if we left them in the overhead compartments. We sat there terrified for the first couple of hours, clutching onto all our stuff, managing to relax a bit when we realised the other passengers were harmless. However, it was still extremely uncomfortable and the bus only stopped once in the 15 hours which was the only time either of us went to the loo...we were far too terrified to use the one on the bus, mainly because it absolutely stank. The stench of piss, sweat and smoke was all-intrusive, filling our nostrils and making it impossible to drift off. A highlight of the night was when the bus broke down for about an hour, apparently this is pretty normal. We had visions of ourselves spending the night sitting on the bus in the middle of nowhere, and then having to do the rest of the journey the next day...would we ever make it to our destination???? 2 hours after our scheduled time of arrival in Iguassu, at 10.30am, we finally made it there alive.

We were running late on our itinerary so only had one day to explore the incredible Iguassu falls, but we made the most of it. We met some really nice girls at our hostel so hung out with them. The day steadily got better and better, the falls were absolutely incredible. The best part was reaching Devil´s Mouth where you walking out onto a big ledge into the middle of the waterfalls and get covered in spray. The views are absolutely amazing and you feel the full force of nature, and how nothign we acheive can ever compare. We rounded the afternoon off nicely with an all you can eat buffet overlooking the falls, a bit of an extravagance given our budget but very necessary after barely eating for the last 2 days. Amazing!!!

Sadly we only had that evening to chill out at our hostel which was probably our favorite so far at that point - the owner was so nice and we met such nice people we wished we could have stayed for longer. But we had a flight to catch to Buenos Aires the next morning! We realised while we were chatting with other travellers that there are in fact 2 airports called Iguassu, one in Brazil and one in Argentina, just as there are 2 cities with the same name. We had assumed were flying from the Brazilian airport around the corner, but after several hours of research finally discovered no we were actually flying from Argentina. Aaaaaah! We weren´t too impressed with STA at this point...Anyway this meant we had to get a taxi early in the morning to the border to get our passports stamped before being able to get to the airport. As we crossed the border and heard our first Spanish we were so happy, it felt like coming home in a way after the unfamiliarity of Brazil and Portuguese. We were in Argentina!!!!

Highlights of Brazil

-the Sambadrome parade in Rio Carnival
-successfully managing not to die in the favelas of Rio
-Trinidade beaches
-boat trip around Paraty
-drinking caipirinhas
-Haviana flip flops
-Iguassu falls

We are now in Buenos Aires absolutely love the city...we will be putting our next blog up soon. Tomorrow we are going to Patagonia to the Peninsula Valdes to see seals, penguins and killer whales!!!!

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