Hi everyone! Welcome to our penultimate postcard from Brazil. When we last wrote, we were sheltering from the rain on Ilha Grande. Fortunately, it didn't last long and we spent our last day on another boat trip - this time to Lagoa Azul (the Blue Lagoon...though it bore no resemblance to that in the film and our verdict was that it was more green than blue!) After a pleasant day beach hopping, we returned to find the whole town was without electricity due to a tree knocking down a power cable. We had no idea how long the power cut would last and the diminishing daylight made packing our bags, as had been planned, impractical. So we headed into town for dinner. It was only on arrival at our chosen restaurant that we twigged no electricity = no cooking = no food!!! Luckily, one beachfront restuarant was operational, thanks to a combination of gas cooker, barbecue and candlelight and we enjoyed a lovely meal before everyone else made the same discovery! On returning to our hostel, we were grateful for our battery operated MP3 players and torches, but still ended up having a ridiculously early night! This meant that getting up at the crack of dawn was not so painful, and keen not to miss the return ferry, we made our way down to the pier with plenty of time to spare. In fact so much time, we discovered we were able to get on an earlier ferry we hadn't realised existed! Our luck continued further when we stepped off the ferry and straight onto a bus going to our next destination (Paraty) leaving two minutes later! We figured after our journey there such luck was only fair! Paraty was a lovely quaint town (see postcard picture), plenty of character, cobbled streets and atmospheric bars serving excellent capirinhas...thanks to Jo G for the recommendation - we abandoned our detox in style with a bottle of wine and several of these!!! Not boat-tripped out from our week on Ilha Grande, it didn't take much persuasion for us to sign up to our hostel's own boat trip to the surrounding islands and beaches, especially when one simply has to roll out of bed (at least those of us on bottom bunks!) and onto a boat moored at the end of the garden. Beautiful though the area was, we only had a day and a half here, and on return from the boat trip, caught the overnight bus to Curitiba. Night time travelling is the way to go, saving on accommodation costs and valuable exploring time in one foul swoop...it's not quite the same as a bed, but you soon get used to it...kind of...we hope... Curitiba is a lively university town - not many sights to see, but plenty of shops and cheap internet cafes. It has been great for us to catch up with what is going on back home - thanks to everyone who has taken time to write to us. Another major achievement for us while here has been to get a film developed onto CD (try explaining that in portuguese!) and to upload some of our favourite photos onto this site - hope you enjoy looking at them. Back on the road/sea tomorrow - find out more in the next postcard! Hope you are all well. Missing you lots, Zena & Kirstie