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 . . .

Iguazu to Rio

Alright so how bad could the bus be right? We had booked semi~cama and the bus from Santiago to BA was pretty good really . . . We got up early and grabbed 2 taxi´s that took us right across the Brazilian border and dropped us at the bus station. There is a time change when you cross Brazil but we knew about that and were still plenty early for our bus. We saw a few buses come and go and none of them looked like the previous one we had been on but they weren´t the worst . . . then we layed eyes on our bus . . . let´s just say, we knew we weren´t in Kansas anymore! The bus was very old, when we turned to the right, the left side would make this loud rattling noise . . . the seats had lots of leg room and leaned back pretty far but you couldn´t recline it all the way as there was no foot rest to brace yourself from the weaving traffic (shall we call it). Our bus was the milk run and made a stop every few hours which was okay except we were sitting near the bathroom and let´s just say, I was glad I was sick and couldn´t breath! People got on and off at different stops we made and Rio Couldñ´t come fast enough! On the plus side, the countryside was beautiful! Brazil is very very green, everything looks like a rainforest. There are lots of police checkpoints that we went through however on one we actually had police get on the bus, collect everyone´s IDs and passports and run them through the computer, a family got pulled and the guy never got back on . . . not sure what that was about, the police kept updating us, but well, portugese is kicking our butts so we had no idea what they were saying! When we arrived in Rio the next day we felt pretty beaten! We then had to get on another bus which was 4 hours to Paraty where we would hit the beach! Fortunately we got 4 tickets for the 4 o´clock bus but 2 of us had to stay behind for the 8 o´clock bus which me and my brother did since, well, I am use to sleeping in bus stations and quite frankly I slept okay on the bus because, well, I can sleep pretty much anywhere (5 airports, 3 train stations and now 3 bus stations). The bus from Rio to Paraty was really really nice though (where were you on the way to Rio?) and unfortunately it was dark when we went at 8pm but we could tell it was really really beautiful. What was cool though, there was a lightening and thunder storm along the way that was happening on our side of the bus, I watched that pretty much the whole way there! When we got to Paraty, the place was deserted, except for some scray people sleeping in the bus station, we jumped in a cab though and made our way to the hostel, safe and sound!