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Published: August 19th 2011
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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 Carribean.
the first thing we needed to do was find a bank to withdraw cash, which was easier said that done...it took us probably 2 hours to find a bank (which is impressive considering the town in probably the same size as Loughborough town centre!). The problem was that every person we asked (and there were quite a few) pointed in different directions! At one
point the person we had asked was pointing in opposite directions like he was on a crucifix whilst talking nonsense in Portugese. Eventually we found a bank, in fact we found 5 together nextdoor to each other on the same road! Typical, you wait for ages and then 5 turn up at once...it's like the buses in london!
In the evening we went to a Samba festival in town. We spent the night sipping Caiprinha's and Hayley stuffed her face with popcorn bought from a local street vendor. At one point a street vendor who was selling cold drinks out of a wheel mounted eski box made us chuckle. He had managed to find a house phone somewhere and was walking up the street having an imaginary coversation with someone on his landline as the phone's wire trailed along behind him. What made it funnier was that he had a sign hanging from his eski read... 'phone-a-beer'...sadly it didn't give the number to call... i wonder why!
Day 2
the next morning we awoke to discover that Hayley had been bitten by either a mosquito or a bed bug...we couldn't decide which. Hayley was NOT happy, but little
did she know it was about to get a whole lot worse for her!! (But that will come later on in the 'Bed Bugs' blog).
We walked to the bus stop and waited for a bus to Trindade, where we had been told was a beautiful beach. We waited for ages and when the bus was 10 mins late we started doubting whether we were waiting in the right place. Sure enough we were waiting on the wrong side of the station and now had to wait another hour for the next bus!!
We eventually made it to the beach, which was indeed lovely, and promptly reverted into the 'beach routine' as i like to call it. Human's are creatures of habit and this is no more evident than when we go to the beach. Women, sorry for the sweeping generalisation, LOVE the beach and Hayley has dragged me to quite a few beaches in the last 2 weeks motivated by the prospect of spending time at these highly revered places. We even treked for a total of 5 hours in a day to visit one beach on Illha Grande which was supposedly one of the top ten beaches
in the world. However, once at the beach Hayley will just lie there motionless, eyes closed for hours, completely oblivious to the outside world and the beach that we're sat on. Then, when the weather turns or we get hungry, we leave the beach and don't look back. So my question is why bother going to the beach in the first place? Ladies, If it's a tan you are after then why not lie on the roof of a tin shed? The reflections off the tin will give you a more even tan and make you a more rounded individual, not to mention the fact that you won't have sand all up your crack and be pestered relentlessly by a bloke selling a bunch of jewelry he's probably stolen of his endearing mother to feed his crack habit.
That evening we were supposed to cook steak and eggs...but we couldn't figure out how to order the steak over the deli counter so we got sausages instead. Then, we realised that the hostel we were staying at had no frying pan so i did boiled eggs instead. To top it off i boiled some potatoes too. The meal was a
bit of an odd combination really and without any seasoning it was soooo bland. Luckily though i had bought some chilli sauce, which i carry with me for just this occassion, so what my meal lacked in taste it more than made up for in spice!
Day 3
The next morning we walked to the bus station and hopped on a bus to Sao Paolo, then changed and got another bus to Iguazu Falls, which are on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The journey wasn't great to be honest because i was sat next to a chode of a woman whose entire right side seeped over the arm rest and into my chair. As a result i was stuck between a rock and a very soft squigy place for the 13 hour bus journey.
In Iguazu falls we checked in at the Bambu hostel and then promptly left to go see the waterfalls.
The waterfalls were incredible! We didn't expect them to be so huge and spread over such a long expanse of river. There was plently of opportunities for, you guessed it, panoramic shots!! At the end of the trail we even got to go
up a tower that gives you a great panoramic view over the waterfalls, but Hayley was having none of it because the platform was made of steel mesh ( i have found out Hayley has a phobia of standing on any surfaces that she can see through).
After the falls we went to the bird park, which housed loads of native parrots etc from the Amazon. However, we got bored pretty quickly and decided to leave after and hour.
In the evening we went for Sushi!! It was really nice but we ordered waaay too much food (mostly my fault). I managed to polish off my meal of 20 pieces of sushi and sashimi, 3 of hayley spring rolls, 2 of her sushi pieces and some chicken fried rice. HollowlegsLAD.
The next morning we headed to the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls, which we had heard were better.
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Grammer
I think you spelt Party wrong mate...