Parati

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Ilha Grande has been such an increible experience. There was a really large group of us that hung out together which was great and the island itself was such a chilled out place to be. We got a boat off the island and then a mini van took us to Parati. Our back tire blew out along the way so we were stood on the roadside for a while. The journey took about 4 hours in total.

Once in Parati the 3 of us traveling together where a little underwhelmed by the town. There is an old colonial part to the town which is quite nice, but after 10 minutes we'd seen pretty much all of it. There are loads of things to do around just out of town - kayaking, beachesand horseback riding but we weren't really feeling any of it. Especially since we just spent the last 4 days on beaches so felt a bit pointless coming to another town for the same thing.

Staying at a place called backpackers hostel. Feels more like someones house then a hostel. We felt it was a pretty cool place to hangout at first, although as the night progressed we realised that it's really not as clean and nice here as we expected. Increibdly nice couple that run the place, although we found it really, really weird that as we were sat around drinking and being silly their 8 year old daughter was sat watching the simpsons right next to us. Decided against spending a second night here and am taking the night bus to Sao Paolo, so will arrive there 6am tomorrow.

Ok well the bus ride i've just been on puts the insane taxi ride in Rio to shame. We got the on coach at 11.40pm and we were due in at 6am. I fell asleep pretty much straight away so which was a good thing. I did wake up at one point as I was falling out of my chair as we were rounding a corner, probably on 2 wheels. I looked down the coach and peoples heads were in the aisles or planted firmly against a window, depending on which side they were seated. All of the curtains were shut which I think was a blessing because I don't think I would have liked what i'd have seen. I suppose it is reassuring to know that coaches can take corners at such speeds and not flip over. Got in to Sao Paolo at 5.10am, now waiting for a more sociable hour to call an old friend who lives here.

The more we talked about Parati the less impressed we were with it. We had so many people tell us what an amazing place it was and how it was a must see. I wouldn't agree with it to such an extent. After coming from Ilha Grande perhaps we were a little spoilt by how nice it was there. But we were done with Parati in an afternoon, although the old town was quite nice.

Spending the night in Sao Paolo and then leaving for the Iguazu falls.

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