So Paraty.
This is a small colonial town on the west coast of Brazil about 2 hours from Angra Dos Reis where the boat docs from Ilha Grande.
It was built as a shipping port in order to transport gold brought down from mountain gold mining towns, such as Ouro Preto, to Rio and across the Atlantic. Once the road from Ouro Preto directly to Rio was built (unsure of date) trade at the shipping port diminished and now it thrives as a tourist destination.
Unfortunately I had made a bit of a blunder with our accommodation in Paraty which was less then average, dirty and quite far out of the historical centre. It appears the great trip advisor reviews had potentially been written by its owner and what I had thought to be a great little hidden gem of a cheap hostel was pretty grim. We both agreed we wanted to spend as little time in our room as possible so we headed straight to the historical centre to take a look around.
The historical centre is all pedestrianised and only horse and carts can travel through it. It is all cobbled streets and the buildings are white with coloured windows and doors. It has a lovely charm to it. After a walk around we went back to the hostel and cooked some pasta for dinner before heading back for a bottle of wine in the town square.
There was what we assume to be some sort of religious festival happening over the weekend and they were playing such loud euro trash music in the square all weekend it nearly sent us mad. It was booming so loud the bass was almost all you could hear!!
Yesterday we decided to take it easy and spent the day drinking coffee and juices and planning our next week in Brazil including Iguaza Falls, Pantanal and Bonito (all very exciting). In the evening we went to a lovely little crepe restaurant and had French crepes and more red wine (seemed drinking made the hostel easier to sleep in :-D)!
We made it through the hostel with our mosquito tent and sleeping bag liners but Esben will now be double checking all hostel choices to try and avoid another stay like that.
Now on the 6 hour bus journey to Sao Paolo where we will mix with the 20m people for a day before taking the night bus to Foz.
I will blog again soon.
Alice
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