Written Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 May
Not much to report from day 1 - travelled for 12 hours, arrived at 7pm and made a beeline for the beach. It was dark (sun sets here around 6pm) but was so nice and the water was lovely and warm - bodes well for tomorrow!
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Having floated and swum around the various islands off the coast, I can appreciate why Paraty is renowned as a tropical paradise. For starters, everything is bursting with colour - the lush green vegetation, the deep turquoise waters and the brightly painted boats. Our boat took us to a few different stops where we could jump in and cool off (weather not exactly sunny but still really warm). At one stop we swam across to the rocks, clambered up to the forest and followed our guide's lead when she started whistling. After 15 mins we gave up and swam back to the boat, only for the trees to start rustling... Doggy paddled it sharpish back to shore armed with apple pieces and got to feed to cutest little monkeys in the world! They were so diddy and I wish I could have taken my camera across with me :( Got a blurry snap of a bigger one earlier in the day though (got up crazy early for a 3 hour stroll along the beach. I say this as though I meant to go for 3 hours when actually I meant to go for 1 and got ridiculously lost. Almost missed the boat but luckily fate intervened and I bumped into someone from the group when I eventually made it to the hostel. Someone up there must have really wanted me to make that booze cruise! All I know is that I really needed that first Caipirinha!).
Ha I edited this photo to give it sepia tones and one of the other options is 'miniature effect'! Don't think I need any help in that department!
Idyllic afternoon followed by a gorgeous Italian meal and an exciting discovery...a bookstore with English novels! Apparently Ilha Grande (our next destination) has storms forecast and I need an excuse to get me out of playing Uno for 2 days straight so I bought 2 fat books to tide me over. We've moved from a sub-tropical climate to a tropical climate now so the weather could get a little crazy! I really like Paraty, it has a great mix of beach, sea, forest and cute cobblestone pirate town and is gorj to walk around.
Glad we've got another full day here although might take a bus out of town to a popular beach area - not sure how I'd pass the time otherwise, there's not an awful lot to do...maybe that's the point but I'm not very good at sitting around doing nothing! Here's hoping for some sun...
