Blogs from Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 5

Here´s my first blog entry ever. I want it to be helpful to other travellers, so here´s what we´ve learnt from two weeks of travelling Brazil... Cash points do not dispense cash after 10pm or before 6am in a lot of places (possibly the whole of Brazil). No guide books tell you this seemingly. Don´t turn left as you walk under the Lapa arches in Rio. It´s rife with muggers. In fact, the whole of Lapa seems to be pretty bad for mugging. Always check the price of things before ordering them in a restaurant. We got charged six pounds sterling for a plate of chips. Just frozen, lob them in the deep fat fryer chips. It felt like a legal mugging. Essential items whilst travelling in Brazil so far have proved to be... DEET (using ... read more

We arrived in Paraty by bus from Santos via a quick over night stay in Caragatuba. Both Santos and Caragatuba are beach cities, but neither seemed to have much “charm.” The six hours we spent walking around Santos was more painful than productive and by the time we arrived in Caragatuba, we were so exhausted we could only grab a room and sleep for 6 hours before we had to catch the bus to Paraty. When we arrived in Paraty, the terminal area was exciting! It was full of all sorts of people going places. A quick exploration down a side street resulted in finding a shopping area and grocery store full of people. It is always good to know where that is at. While we were waiting at the big sign that said “Tourist Office” ... read more

Day 1 we checked into the Geko hostel, which seemed quite nice but the receptionist was a seriously moody bitch. Normally the hostel staff are really helpful and tell you about what's going on in the area...not this one, she just sat on facebook all day and when you asked her a question she looked at you as if you had just defecated all over desk. never the less we headed into town, which was really nice and quaint. We were told later that Paraty is Brazil's culture capital and we could see why. The buildings were brightly coloured contained lots of shops displaying clothes and local art (along with the unescapable tourist tat) and the streets in the town centre were cobbled with large stones making it feel like something out of Pirates of the ... read more

spent our last day in Rio with Clara from our hostel, went to Centro and got a tram up to Santa Teresa, then got a couple of buses over to Corcovado and went up the mountain to Cristo Redentor. Even higher than Sugar loaf and beautiful views. Headed back to the hostel for a quick nap then headed out with Clara, Callum, Bram and Sarah (I think!) from our hostel for a pay by the 100g dinner. Liz almost ate tongue but managed to realise what it was before eating! We then headed to Lapa street party, had a few vodkas on the beach and some rather strong Caiprinhas (Cachaca spirit, sugar and lime juice). Met up with a few more from our hostel there, chatted to a few locals, and some other travellers, some from ... read more

Today we had a free day in Paraty. Elle was sick in bed with tonsilitis for the morning, but felt heaps better in the afternoon. Rach and the others went for a walk into the town in the morning and did a bit of shopping, including another Haviana purchase! In the evening we had a group dinner at the hostel, where it was all you could eat buffet pizza and pasta. You could request what sort of pizza you wanted and they made it fresh for you which was pretty cool. One of the guys on our tour was having his 25th birthday on the 17th June, so at 3am that morning, Elle, Rach, and 3 others from the tour snuck into the town without him noticing, and took an ENORMOUS banner of a Brazilian girl ... read more