Pousada Caminho do Ouro Paraty

... The tour consisted of a guy saying 'water goes in here, cachça comes out here' ... gutted?? No becuase then he brought out about 15 different bottles and we shot glasses for us to sample!! OH YEAH!<br><br>Also went to the rainforest, but its just lots of trees and it started raining so, bumped that!<br><br>Sao Paulo the now! Will update everone one that soon!<br><br>Hope you all enjoying winter! <br>

... waiting to get your attention.<br><br>Getting to Paraty took an entire day of less-than-ideal traveling. We took the regular bus (not the nice night bus with fully-reclining seats I had heard about from friends) and it smelled like a dirty men´s toilet. Our guide brought us DVDs to watch, but due to the horrible TVs, and the less-than-stellar quality of bootleg DVDs bought on a Brazilian street corner, we only managed to see the first 2/3rds of the Denzel Washington/Dakota ...

... 8217;s not just us. Yesterday we spent two hours trying to get money out but every time the machine comes up with a different error message. It&#8217;s like a magic 8 ball &#8216;Card details invalid&#8217; &#8216;communication problems&#8217; &#8216;try again later&#8217; &#8216;system problems&#8217; and on and on and on. Most frustrating is that it gets you right to the point when it should give you money but then none comes out so we have no idea what&#8217;s been ...

... was fun, we'd agreed to meet up with Chrissy and Tracy for beers in the bars in town, and Tracy bought a football with her, giving us a good opportunity for a kick-about whilst inebriated, with some locals, who unsurprisingly played better than us!<br><br>Paraty had been just the tonic we needed after the Galapagos, and left us feeling refreshed and back on course with the backpacking. Next stop - Ihla Grande, rumoured to contain Brazil's best beach...

... about, meet some new people(who speak English!) and have a bit of a party. I have to say though, watching a bit of inaneTV, having a power shower and sleeping in a bed that doesnt sway has been wonderful, but I suppose I can do that all I want when I get back to London (in DECEMBER)! Till I next write heres to being a rubbish but enthusiastic sailor and to the next silly tales life has in store for me! Big schmiles and snogs to you all xxxxx

... like a mini-baracuda with strangecolours moving like waves down its body, at night glowing flourescent in the water. The weather was hot hot hot, and the boat stopped regularly to let you cool off. All of this was accompanied by a Brazillian man (who must have been at least 22-stone) playing guitar and playing all of the Brazillian classics. The town itself is very interesting, mainly built on the profits of gold and other ...

... zet je gewoon de strijkplanken buiten en kun je daar je biertje op kwijt. Slim. Het onvermijdelijke moment kwam daar en we stonden er weer moederziels alleen voor in de grote boze stad. Let's get out of here, want de conclusie was toch wel dat Sampa met zijn 22 miljoen inwoners eigenlijk wel een beetje saaie stad is. En voor mijn moeder: Sampa is volgens de Lonely Planet gevaarlijker dan Rio, dus we hebben het overleefd, geen reden meer om te zenuwen. De volgende dag vertrok ...

... sunburn) and suddenly there were calls for his return as the crew realised this was gonna be a big storm.. Us as passengers not accustomed to storms at sea transformed those calls into near desperate cries as we (ever so slightly) paniced. It was like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz as people were locking down the hatchs and tying rope round everything while the passengers huddled downstairs in the cabin. The good thing about this downpour was 1) the ...

Arrived in Paraty to find glorious sunshine but little did we know that would be all we'd see of the sun!!! Paraty is a beautifully preserved colonial town full of colour and charm (can you tell I like it?!). We checked into the hostel, which we booked online. It's called Historic Centre Hostel and it's run by an englishman. A very good choice. It's 50 reais for a double room ensuite with a lovely buffet breakfast. Great value and right in the middle of the old town ...

... pretty intimidating to explore by yourself. The highrise apartment blocks littered the skyline and just went on and on through the city. Driving through we experienced our first taste of what the favelas looked like and it was quite humbling just seeing vast swathes of ramshackle buildings and rows of washing draped in between. The drive to Paraty was slightly longer than expected, and not the most comfortable owing to our tiny bus and vast amounts of ...