Hey everyone, just a quick entry as we haven't got much battery left and yet to find somewhere to get power! We have now left Rio and are in the beautiful colonial town of Paraty! We love it here, it feels very European as there are cobbled streets, brightly coloured buildings and boats and a town square with a stage for live music! We arrived late afternoon on Wednesday 13th feb. We successfully put up our tents (woop!) then went explore the town, where we found ourselves on a boat trip with 2 lovely Brazilian men who played English music. Unfortunately, none of them spoke a word of English so it was a fun hour and a half while we tried to communicate! Despite a few misunderstandings, we managed to get the gist of what they were saying with our limited Portuguese as they told us about the surrounding islands and coastline.

We finished out evening (or so we thought) with a quiet drink on the beach before an early night but it wasn't long before we were being serenaded by at the beach bar by some locals, who then took us into the town to try some different local beverages! In the early hours of the morning, colette ticked yet another thing off her bucket list as we had a ride on a motorbike!!

Katie had her first proper nights sleep after the crazy all night parties of Rio, yay!! Our original plan was to get a bus to a local national park, however we decided to splash out on a jeep tour! Our haggling skills are progressing in leaps and bounds, as we reduced the price massively before agreeing. The tour took us to 4 waterfalls and 3 cachaca (Brazilian alcohol made from sugar cane) factories. We didn't have swimwear, but it looked too fun to miss out, as there were ropes swinging into the water (videos to come!!), a massive natural slide and you could even go behind the waterfalls! The cachaca factories were also great as we had unlimited cachaca tasters of all flavours!

Last night was our turn to cook for camp. On the bright side, no one was ill in the night, but cooking Spanish omelette for 36 people on a small camping stove was never going to be easy!

Today was had an all day boat cruise. We stopped at 4 remote beaches, some of them on islands where we could jump off the boat and swim in the sea, which was a relief as it was over 40 degrees!! The unlimited free caipirinhas also helped to keep us cool and added to the fun!

Off for an early night now, ready for an early start in the morning to travel to the Pantanal.

Loads of love,
Katie and Colette
Xxxxxxxx