Blogs from Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 3

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South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty February 1st 2013

From Foz we headed to Brazil’s Southern Pantanal. The Pantanal is a vast wetland that covers much of inland and central Brazil, staying on a cattle ranch we spent a few days getting up close and personal with the Brazilin wildlife. Heading out on horseback we traversed the ranch viewing an amazing amount of birdlife in the tree tops, hundreds of macaws and parakeets, some toucans, kingfishers, storks, kites and hawks. On night safaris we hoped for jaguars but were happy to see ocelot, capybara and giant ant eaters. When not out viewing the wildlife there was a huge pool, amazing food, cold beers…… From the Pantanal it was a short drive to Bonito – described as the ecotourism capital of Brazil. Surrounding Bonito are crystal clear rivers, natural springs and caves. We spent a couple ... read more
002. The  Southern Pantanal
003. The  Southern Pantanal
004. The  Southern Pantanal

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty December 21st 2012

All the way to Parati it was cloudy and a bit damp, so we're not so sure about the prospect of hitting the beach in this little town. Unfortunately we are finding that the buses in Brazil have taken us back to the dark days where we didn't get complementary drinks and the bus stops on ever corner to pick up locals. One thing we have learned during our travels is that when presented with a chair with a reclining feature, 90% of people around the world are unable to not take it back to its furthest point, and most places this is the point when your head is on the knee of the person behind (on one bus trip we actually got asked by the conductor to move our knees as they were preventing the ... read more

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty December 14th 2012

Day 90 We arrived in Paraty at 2am, and managed to find our hostel without too much trouble and checked into our dorm room at Backpackers House hostel. It was stifflingly hot and uncomfortable, but we were so tired we managed to get a fairly good nights sleep before having a fantastic breakfast at around 9am. After breakfast we took a 30 minute bus to Laranjeiras, followed by an hour long stroll through some pretty woodland to a beautiful, and pretty-much deserted beach. We met some South Africans on the way and spent a great day at the beach with them. Mid-afternoon we took a speedboat from the beach back to the bus stop before heading straight to a cool little bar for some delicious (pint sized!) caipirinhas, including some that were made with Gabriela Cachaca ... read more
Mark in the jungle
First peek of the beach
On way to the beach

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty November 18th 2012

Up until now our internet time has been filled with booking buses and rooms - hence the delay in posts. Anyway... As I mentioned in the previous blog we bailed out of Rio early due to bad weather and inflated prices from the holiday. Holidays can get realllyy pricey in Rio, after talking to some folks I found out during Carnaval rooms are up to $200 USD per PERSON for a crappy dorm in a hostel. Heresay, but I believe it after the prices we saw for the Nov 15th holiday. Anyhow, the holiday was still going strong as we tried to leave Rio, and since we hadn't made any reservations we had a tough time deciding where to go next. We had originally wanted to go to Ihla grande next, but it was fully booked ... read more

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty November 9th 2012

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 ... read more
Parati old town
Parati people
Parati

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty November 4th 2012

Day 381 Friday 26th October Today we are on the move again and getting the 9.30am bus back to Brasilia as the next bus is at 4.00pm and it makes our 7.15pm connection to Ouro Preto too tight. So after breakfast we started our journey with a confusing conversation with the woman running the hotel when we tried to check out, thankfully some other tourists stepped in who could speak English and translated. We had our credit card in our hand and wanted to pay, would have thought in any language that would have translated but not with this woman. Walked to the bus terminal and got the tickets, lucky we got the earlier bus as it was running late and if the afternoon one did this there was a chance we would miss our connection. ... read more
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto
Paraty

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty October 18th 2012

De reis naar Paraty verloopt hetzelfde als de reis naar Ilha Grande: met de boot en vervolgens met z’n allen in de mini-van. Deze keer is het busje iets minder luxe en ruim waardoor alle tassen bovenop het dak moeten. Op het laatste moment besluiten we onze backpacks toch nog even in de flightbags te doen. Niet veel later blijkt dat een goede zet te zijn geweest: al na vijf minuten begint het flink te regenen. Als we in Paraty de tassen uit de fightbags halen, blijken ze hun werk goed te doen: de tassen zijn keurig schoon en droog gebleven. Op de boot heeft Tijs meer dan 10 hostels gebeld om te vragen of ze een private room beschikbaar hadden. Helaas krijgt hij telkens nul op het rekest. Waarom alle hostels elke keer volgeboekt zijn, ... read more
Straat
Gerline
Koets 2

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty October 5th 2012

Paraty pronounced Parachee is an old colonial Portuguese town with cobble streets and squares and churches. The shops are abundant and seem to be inside a house rather than a typical glass shop front but there are lots of other shops too. Went on a boat trip today to some islands and went swimming in the sea from the boat. Great fun day Steve is getting a taste for Cahprinanas as Harry said he was drinking too much beer. However drinking it through a snorkel was different!... read more
Paraty
Pony and trap
Our Finnish Friends

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty October 5th 2012

Day 5 We had to get up at 3.45 to get to the airport by 5am for the 6.00 am flight. It is now 11 and the flight has still not left. We had rain all day yesterday and the weather has been blamed for the delayed flight. So we have been talking and playing cards and waiting, ok for us as we have another 6 months of travelling but not for those on a short holiday, we should be travelling to Paraty by now.Eventually arrived at 8pm to such an amazing noise not quite what we wanted but its the elections and they put UK to shame they are so enthusiastic and have fireworks going off all the time.Paraty is very authentic with cobble streets and we are staying in a very pretty pousada right ... read more

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Paraty July 31st 2012

Paraty is a beautiful colonial town, got here last night and will explore today. The main events so far have occured on Ilha Grande, with the evenings involving getting smashed on Caipirinhas. I think that these drinks, are a bit like crack cocain. Me and Bob went for an insane hike in the rain forest, without food and not enough water. We were walking for eight hours straight, through thick forest, and by the end I was delirious with dehidration. I thought that eating our only apple, was like having a drink. Also made it over to the famous Lopes Mendes beach, were I also nearly lost my life. I almost drowned in the huge waves, which seemed to create a riptide. Luckily for me my new friend Ian was on hand, to save my life. ... read more




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