Welcome to Parityise

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After our hectic few days in Rio we decided it was time to head to the beach for some sunshine. We went to Parity which is about 4 hours from Rio. We got on our first South American bus, which we were worried about but turned out to be fine. Was actually quite a nice bus and very comfortable.

Parity is one of the oldest towns in Brazil and is famous for it´s beaches, which I must say are amazing and are probably the best beaches I have every been too. The town beach of Parity isn´t that nice and is full of stray dogs but the surrounding ones are great. We did a boat cruise to some more secluded beaches and a few islands around the place which was probably one of my favourite things to do. The boat was huge and didn´t have that many people on it so we could just spread out and relax. The water is so nice and warm, like being in a bath. Much better then in NZ which was about 10 degrees! It was a lopvely day and we were both very sunsmart and so didn´t get sunburnt either! Leaving in Oz and NZ has taught me something - there isn´t anything healthy about a tan!

We also did a trip to Trindade which has more lovely beaches. We had to get on the chicken bus (as Ian calls it - means local bus) which was an experience. The ride out there was fine but the ride back was horrific. It was packed. We had seats in the beginning but then some people got on carring kids so we gave them our seats. This was fine but the bus just got busier and busier and there was no aircon of course. It kept stopping to let more people on and was going round really windy roads. All of this for some reason lead me to nearly faint on the bus - although I still say I was just going to sit on the floor! It must have been bad though as one of the people carrying the child insisted I take his seat from him. Which I did and I was fine after that. Also some guy had a go at Ian in Portuguise, even though of course Ian couldn´t understand a word he said! A funny experience. But Trindade was so good that it didn´t matter. It had loads more lovely beaches and no stray dogs!

We finally had to leave Parity, although neither of us wanted to and had to spend an entire day on the bus to get to foz do iguaçu. What a lovely day it was! Although actually it wasn´t that bad.

We arrived here yesterday and managed to get to the Brazilian side of the falls before the rain set in. The Brazilian side is good as it shows you the overall view. We aren´t going to the Argentina side anymore as it is raining really badly and is supposed to be tomorrow too. We don´t want to sit around here for ages waiting for the rain to stop so Ian is sorting out the bus at the moment. I am sad as everyone says the Argentina side is better but it just isn´t worth it in the rain. So tonight will be another 20 hour bus ride - yippee!!

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