Paraty

December 28th we were in Paraty, it was sunny out but we were told to expect thunderstorms by the afternoon. Our hostel had no water but as determined as I am, I showered in a mere drip of water! Paraty is a very beautiful city. It reminded me a bit of Halong Bay the way there were huge land protrusions coming out of the water everywhere and you could take a boat out that would take you to secluded islands were you could swim. Our hostel was right on the beach so it was really beautiful when you looked out. We had a day trip already booked on a 4x4 truck that took us to several waterfalls, a distillery and lunch. The waterfalls were pretty amazing and because it had rained so much, everything was very muddy and slippery, it was a test of your balance as to whether you could make it. They had a rock as well that you could slide down, a natural waterfall if you would, that was pretty cool! Paraty is rainforest, lush and green and humid! There was another family who was on the tour with us and they were really nice (rich). They were from Sao Paolo but the son was studying in Vancouver now at UBC (his name was also Marcel!). It started to rain right after the distillery as we were headed to lunch but the Brazilians assured us it would blow over so we didn´t worry to much about it . . . we were at lunch for about 2 hours and we begun to see lakes and rushing water where there at previously been road and dry ground . . . the building we ate in was from the 17th centure and as we sat there we understood the weird layout and structure of it . . . this wasnt the first time they had experienced this kind of rainfall! So we figured that the sides of our truck would roll down and all would be fine for our trek out of the rainforest and back to some proper roads, but oh no, we had the truck that was open air . . . so we put our mom´s into the cab where they would be dry and we roughed it out in the pouring rain . . . it was actually a lot of fun cause at that point you were so wet there was nothing you could do but laugh . . . plus you had to watch out for the Marcels´ . . . When we finally got back to our hostel at the end of the day we were all ready for a shower . . . fortunately there was water but parts of the city was flooding and the water wouldn´t drain from the shower! Always something . . . that was hostel was really nice though, new and clean, so no complaints from us! The next day it was 44C so we spent a few hours at the beach, then came back and showered as we had to get out of our rooms, we walked around downtown and then grabbed the 3:20 bus back to Rio. . . it was raining at this point and it wasn´t until we reached our hostel that we found out it would be raining for the next few days in Rio . . . and that this hostel would be the worst of them all . . .