After leaving Ilha Grande we headed further down the coast to the town of Paraty. Few days there before heading on the mammoth journey to Iguazu Falls!

Paraty is a beautiful old town with a big historic centre. Looks like an old Portuguese fishing village, a lot of the bars, restaurants and shops all come out from hidden little doors that open onto the street. The first night we ended up in a tiny little bar you'd never knew existed without being taken by a local guy who worked at the hostel. Standard late night finish and up for a tour in the morning!

Apparently the town was established for the Portuguese merchants who mined gold and needed a safe port to leave for Europe. Leaving from Paraty stopped the pirate ambushes! Ruins of a big fort look over the town.

The weather wasn't expected to be great for the first few days so we went on a tour around all the natural waterfalls and Cachaca distillery and spent a day mooching around the old town and fort ruins. One of the waterfalls had a big natural slide, the locals hold rock surfing competitions there, crazy stuff!

The hostel we stayed in was strange, on the first day we had a couple of 60 year old women in our dorm, one day it was nearly empty and one day packed with people partying, midweek, until about 3/4 in the morning...!

On the final few days we headed to a town called Trindade, 40 mins by local bus it's a tiny hippie town with 3 amazing beaches and natural pools. Unspoilt now, everyone's expecting it to be the next big place for tourists so good to see it chilled and unspoilt. Nice room with a sea view and amazing weather helped! Group of proper hippies on the beach at night, playing guitars around candles and telling us how much they loved the ocean.

We decided to break up the journey to Iguazu by stopping off in São Paulo on route, over 5 hours from Paraty. We're hoping to get in a favela tour in one of the biggest in Brazil and maybe even a local football match if we're lucky. We're inland now for a few months and the last few weeks in Brazil...