Pousada Porto Imperial Paraty

The beach at last. This is what we´ve been craving after busy city traffic in Rio, and just in general after moving out of London, and road tripping in Italy. We´ve finally hit slow motion button on the dial, and have just spent three nights taking it easy in Paraty, (pronouced Parachi)

There wasn´t any letup in the clouds on the morning leaving Rio so no view from Christ the Redeemer for us. Next time aye.. We nearly left without even checking out Copacapana ...

... walks and runs along the long stretch of sand. From the eastern-most point of the beach, I looked up and saw Pico de Papagaio. The water was that perfect azul color and calm on this end of the beach. While there were several other beaches we could have hiked to (minimum 4-6hr roundtrip), we liked the luxury of the cheap ferries and spent two full days at Lopes Mendes. The old fogues we are, we spent our evenings curled up in bed watching movies (Invincable, The ...

... deck in the sun and washed down with a couple cold Brahma beers. It was an amazing day. After the boat trip, we stolled around town. The tide was up, which turned several of the lower cobblestones streets into waterways.

The next day we caught a bus over the mountains to the neighboring small town of Trinidad to attempt to rent surfboards and surf. The surf was cranking a nice overhead swell but decent boards could not be ...

So two days ago we woke up and I have come down with a headcold so we spend that day on Jabaquara Beach - the day was beautiful, about 22/23 degrees we think so we lazed around reading and listening to music. Headed to the old town for dinner to a really trendy place called Margarida Cafe - there was live music playing again but sher didn´t the meal cost us 20 euro!! We got a bit of a shock with that as there was a cover charge becasue of the music but sher ...

... giant waterproofs we had been given over their bikinis and looked hilarious. We warmed up by drinking loads of flavoured cachaca at the distilleries though.
We went out on Saturday night to see the famous Brazilian samba singer which half of Brazil had arrived in Paraty to see. We were drinking caipirinhas from the stalls, which were so strong, but tasty. We thought the Brazilians were seriously hardcore til we went back to the stall for more and watched ...

... 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 ...

... shook (delighted as it was her who brought the russian on us)we proceded to feel sorry for ourselves for the rest of the day. Twas a serious warm up for rio id say 10 days of that kinda drinkin ( by the way it turns out that catriona swapped details with the russian so we could meet up in Rio to continue from where we left off BAD IDEA) n i will be one shook puppy on the flight to Quito. Still lookin forward to it though.We headin tomorrow for rio cant wait.

... which took in a natural pool at the foot of a small waterfall, the ruins of one of the islands former prisons and a couple of beaches. We had thought that the shops and restaurants might be closed on Christmas day but the beachfront was packed with people wanting something to do and it was business as usual! On Boxing Day (Foy´s Birthday!), the rain was heavier but we took advantage of a gap in the ...

... a bed and breakfast. The place that we stop at is lovely, its intimate, clean and private. No nasties, lurking under the bed although the humidity of the place does mean the place smells a little musty. No bother - we put the fan on full, open the windows and give the place a good airing. James and I ditch our bags and we head off round the island for some exploring. Our zealousness for adventure is soon cut short when a dodgy stomach ...

... y near drowning expereince where juan our tour leader had to swim over and rescue me, i had a lovely time. we are now just off to have dinner, cheap and cheerful this time, and then brazil play bolivia tonight so should be fun nioght in the bars. will try and upload photos soon so u can see the loveliness. gotta go, caiprianhas calling hope all well. love to all. thanks gems and tones for emails, lovely to hear from u.