ilha grande contd...

third day we adventured to lopez mendez, a local surf beach, only reachable by boat! was apsolutely beautiful, far more crabs than people, as you walk along all you can see is little legs scurring back into there burrows! we walked for about 20mins(according to rhi it was better further along) it wasnt, just further away! so we spent a day getting as much of a tan as we could before we adventure inland and down to BA... chilly places!

the next day was cloudy, so we didnt do too much, just sat around, contemplated moving on but it was the weekend and the ferry cost more, so we stuck around in order to stick to the budget !

day three, the sun came out to play, woop woop, no messin, up early for free breakfast and down to port for a six quid boat trip around to lagoa azul (blue lagoon) it did three stops, so with snorkle in hand we proceeded to belly flop off the boat and do some swimmin with the fishes! not only fishes, but get this... turtle´s, yep i did dive down and swim along side, n yep i did get scared and swim back up again rather pronto!lol! it was a lovely day, and we got into port as the sun came down!

we made quiet a close bunch a friends at this hostel, it was small, and quiet but we did a good job of livening it up again! met 2 swedish girls, an auzzie n a new zealander, all lovely! an english couple too, but for some reason we dont bother so much with our own lol!

anyway, the next day provided clouds so we decided it was time to use it on a bus!making our way down the coast to paraty for two nights. it wasnt a good bus ride, i had to take backpack on with me coz boot was full, but we made it unscathed and only a short walk to the ´historic centre hostel´. the town of paraty is a protected heritage town known for its beauty and easy way of life, better to spend more time here than sau paulo we thought, which we soon found out was a very wise move! we spent the days exploring and a little time on the beach. By night it was sleepy town, luckily the hostel had a bar just down the road which put on an all you can eat and drink bbq, caprianas galore, heavy hangovers and large guts, we got our moneys worth!

finally, with sore hips, thanks too rather thin matresses, we got the bus to the town off sau paulo, the bus was luxury, a pleasant 6 hour ride, wish we could have slept on that, the hotel was bloody awful! yuk! we got off bus, around 7pm, and proceded to get on tube to a place in centre-ish of sau paolo called sau bento, not nice, felt extremely out of place, only white faces and very much a novelty, felt unsafe, but we´d read up on cheap hotel , needed a place to rest so we continued.after making it to the hotel, we were told it was full and to head up the road to a place to grande broadway hotel, well it was the same price, but my god, eewwww! we were thrown on top floor, where for some reason the cats lived, yes it did smell of wee! and into a little room that didnt smell much better, we did not shower, thought we´d come out dirtier than before! the flush didnt work and the windows rattled in there frames with every passing truck, which considering we were 8 floors up, we though was quite a feat! the bedding was so bad, we got the sleeping bags out and slept in those to ensure no eaten legs in the morning! clearly...we skipped the free breakfast, and left asap in the morning! headed for the tube, navigated our way to a bus terminal and then on bus to the airport for our flight to iguazzu. which we made in plenty of time, so i am writing now having got to the hostel/pousada safely and having found it in a very livable smell free state... luxury!

we will report shortly with our adventures around iguazzu!

rhibee n corx! xxx