Paraty and Trindade - Beach and Rainforest Paradise

Highlights of Paraty (which seems so long ago now) included going on a 4wd tour - where we visited 3 waterfalls and some chucasa distilleries. Chucasa (not sure on spelling) is an alcohol made from fermented sugar cane with fruit, chocolate or honey added for flavouring and is served straight - with a 33%(ish) alcohol content it really puts hairs on your chest. As we are all about experiencing local culture we of course had to sample many of these chucasas haha. At the first place we went to we were really spun out by the two 10-12year old girls who were our bar tenders - it seemed so wrong being served 33% alcohol people so young! They were real characters though and gave us a good giggle. The waterfalls were amazing. One of them is like a natural water slide so we had lots of fun hurtling down it into the water. We thought we were brave enough going down the waterfalls sitting down, but we witnessed all the (fearless) local kids/teens sliding down standing up - doing 360° turns and other tricks all the way down - incredible to watch! What a way to grow up!!  The other highlight of that day was discovering that the butterflies and the waterfalls were very friendly - and that you can pick them up!!!

Last Sunday we went on a pirate ship cruise around paraty´s islands with some Argentinians that we met the night before. It was an amazing day of swimming in beautiful clear water, laying on beaches and listening to live music on the boat. I have been trying to conquer my fear of jumping off things into water (note mother: only clear deep water - not rock pools), so i decided that it would be a great idea for BB and I to jump off the second story of the boat - so scary but worth it!

It is so beautiful to bear witness to the sense of community in Paraty. We went on a day trip to some waterfalls and on the way there the driver must have said hi/stopped and talked/waved to about every 2nd person we passed. So many radiant smiles and loving, happy vibes being shared - magic.

When we decided on this trip we constantly had people telling us how dangerous Brazil is. While it is true that there are a very very small amount of people looking for open opportunities to do wrong by you, this is not true for the other 99% of the population. The whole time we´ve spent in Trindade and Paraty we have been leaving our bags (containing cameras, wallets etc) beside waterfalls or on the beach while we go in and swim and we never had a problem. The only time anyone touched our stuff is when we left it too close to the water on the beach (stupid gringos) and they moved them further back for us. While i know that one needs to be careful, I think that it is far too easy to get caught up in the negatives displayed by the very few and in doing so - forgetting or completely neglecting to see how much good there actually is in a place. It is also interesting to note that of all the people who told me how dangerous Brazil would be - I cannot think of one who had actually been here.

We have also been amazed by the patience shown towards foreigners (and our lack of Portuguese language skills). I feel that in Australia you definitely don´t see this and that it´s something we should really aspire for. Being on the other side of the equation w have really appreciated people genuinely trying to help us, even when we have no common language at all.

Our time in Trindade was spent hiking, swimming and drinking in equal parts - with some sleep in there for good measure. Our typical day consisted of: Wake up at 10 am and eat free breakfast. Go for a hike through the rainforest's and beaches to go swim in waterfalls and the ocean all day. Come home around 5 or 6. Drink and chat with people at the hostel. Go out at midnight when the hostel closes go out drinking at the beach bars until about 4am. Go home and sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. 6 days later we really didn´t want to leave - once i get to a place where i can upload photos you will see why!  Hilarious memories include going to the local ´pool hall´ (read two pool tables in some ones garage) and attempting to learn how to play the Brazilian version of pool (which has no black ball) through the use of sign language and us speaking lots of English and them speaking lots of Portuguese - soooo many laughs from all parties involved. We are definitely loving and embracing the Brazillian attitude towards body image, every body is beautiful and should be shown! Standard hiking gear in Trindade consisted of a bikini, backpack and if you were feeling flashy - flipflops (thongs). It just makes sence when its ridiculously hot and you´re jumping in the ocean or waterfalls every 30 minutes!

The hostel we stayed at (Kaissara) was the best so far. It was in an amazing location and George the owner would take us out to waterfalls and show us all the cool things to do there - such as hiding in caves behind waterfalls and taking secret passages through waterfalls to under rocks - good disappearing trick. One day he took us out on a boat to lots of hidden beaches and we had a (very late) lunch at a tiny tiny town called ponta negra - the town doesn´t have any power and the only way to access it is by hiking for a few hours or by boat. It was great watching the kids tearing around on the beach, playing soccer and having fun - living it up in their paradise home!

I would definitely recommend that hostel to anyone - such a good homey environment. On our last night there we had ´Caprihina Friday´, with 3 Reis for all you can drink caprihinas - needless to say the whole hostel was VERY happy (read drunk) by the time they ran out. Caprihinas are the drink of choice in Brazil - they consist of muddled lime, sugar, ice and pinga (sugar cane alcohol). The first time we tried them it was like we had been punched in the brain - however we have soon come to love them. It was also great to have a technology free week! I think i~m definitely going to have more of those!

We are now back in Paraty having an organising day before heading off to Ilha Grande on Monday. As much as we loved Paraty when we got here the first time - Trindade has definitely spoiled us and now we just want to get back to hiking and swimming all day - missing the rainforest's already!! (maybe not the mosquito's though!!!) 
Too many amazing fun happy times to write about so I will stop here - but will add pics when we have better internet - I SWEAR!!!
xxxxxx

Paradise in Trindade

Holding a butterfly!!!

These young girls got us quite drunk!

sliding down waterfalls

more paradise

waterfall massage

jurrasic landscape

Playing a tourist...

Greetings!

BB and I are now in a town called Paraty which could be described as the polar opposite of Sao Paulo, instead of the 360° view of highrises there is a 360° view of mountains and not a highrise in sight! Also the national car of paraty is not a kombi...it´s a beetle - so everything is downsized here!

Our last few days in Sao Paulo were much more touristy. We headed into Luz, the ´old centre´ of the city with Tassia and one of her friends who played guide for us. The first place they took us was the law university they had both attended, which puts even UQ to shame with how fancy it is. It was the first university started in Sao Paulo (possibly Brazil.... i don´t remember) and has a very interesting history to it, most of which due to the behaviour of the students whom have attended. One of the stories they told us was regarding a statue out the front of the uni. We were told that one of them was originally made for the uni but the uni decided to donate it to the council to put in a nearby park. Years later the statue wasn´t being maintained so the students asked the council if they could have it back, the council refused. After attempting to get the statue back legally several times the (law) students decided to take matters into their own hands. So they went to the park in the middle of the night with a ute and several people, STOLE the statue and put it back in front of the uni!! Where it still stands today. (pics to come so you can imagine the epic scale of this. We were also told a story about how when the rest of the university was built at another campus, they decided to make a building for the law faculty on the new campus then move them there. The students didn´t want to move out of their amazing building so every night they would go to the construction site and knock down any progress that had been made. This continued until the uni gave up and let them keep their building! Students in Aus are definitely better behaved!

After the uni we went up a highrise (to about the 38th floor) to check out the view and really comprehend just how big the city of Sao Paulo is.......and it´s massive!!! Only then could we comprehend how you fit 20million people in one city. There were highrises are far as the eye could see in every direction (once again pics coming), very epic.

As mentioned above we are now in a tiny historic town called Paraty. We´re satying in a hostel that is right on the beach and everything moves a bit slower. The roads are still paved with random stones and rocks and some people are still using horse and carriages! The room we´re in isn´t the best - 9 people in one TINY room with one fan that doesn´t actually provide any air for 3 of the beds and a light that just dimly lights the room. But its cheap and on a beach - so its a good compromise i guess. There are lots of friendly dogs on the beach - the funniest thing i saw yesterday was a dog running straight over (and falling over) a sunbaking mans face - and the man didn´t even flinch!

Today we just spent exploring the town (which is incredibly cute and feels like we´ve stepped back a century) and trying to organise our rio accomodation - which is becoming the biggest mission ever!! Tomorrow we´re going to play pirate and explore the seas on the `´Buccaneer II´` - sounds like my kind of boat!

During the last week we have really felt like we´re the only people who don´t know portuguese. While this is annoying it definitely makes for some hillarious sign language conversations to try and get our point across - not always with good results. Definitely planning on learning more spanish when we head to argentina and beyond. Especially as it would be nice to be able to talk with locals and others for reasons other than trying to buy goods and services - which is all we can do at the moment on the most part. In saying that many people have come up and talked to us because we were speaking English and they wanted to be friendly - so i guess it works both ways.

Will add some pics when i have a better internet connection. You guys should email me and tell me whats happening back at home.
xxxx

beautiful Parati town

This is the statue from the story....

lecture theatre from inside the law uni

Sao Paulo - The monster
Imagine this in every direction!

The 9 bed dorm of doom!! There was literally not enough room for all of our bags to be stored, let alone accessing the things inside them

The hostel containing the 9 bed dorm of doom.... at least it was next to a beach!

The first few steps...

Greetings from Sao Paulo, unofficial home of the white kombi van (we counted no less than 80 of them today in the space of a 1hr walk!). Today is our third day in SP and we are taking some time to chill by the pool, eat delicious home made food and drink 60c beer (wooo!).

Things have been great so far. The plane trip over was uneventful. The highlight of our 22 hours in LA was eating taco bell...sooo good! and maybe our amazing hotel comes a close second - it was so fancy even the pillows were labeled so we could easily identify which pillows were soft and which were firm, haha.

After 3 more flights ( LA->El Salvador->Bogota->Sao Paulo) and another 24 hours we still somehow decided to go the backpacker budget way to our hostel (to avoid the $60 taxi) and take a bus and 3 trains. Turns out the metro system here is really easy, especially as if we ever looked lost or confused a friendly local would come up to us and help us however they could. In general, people here are amazingly lovely and helpful! Even today in the supermarket queue a man started talking to us just because he heard us speaking english and wanted us to feel welcome in Brazil.

Yesterday we met up with Tassia, a girl Bianca met during previous travels. She took us out to lunch and showed us around town. Later on we me up with her again to go out clubbing with her and her friends. As there were about 7 of us naturally we just got a litre bottle of vodka between us at the bar, haha. Was a good night. There was a band playing old school brazillian songs that everyone knew the words to - kind of like
a cover band at home except in portuguese.We had sooo much fun!!
 
Anyway, that is all for now.
xxxxxxx

 At the airport ready to go

Firm and soft pillows

On the wall at our hostel (rotate 90´)

Clubbing Brazillian Style

Ninja Brocoli

this is right next to our room

living a hard life... hahaha