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Currently in Curitiba, probably the most boring town I have ever visited... but tomorrow we are off to Iguassu Falls so can not wait!
Before I arrived in Curitiba I met the rest of my tour group, all girls, 7 including me plus the one man, the tour guide. Half way through the trip we will meet up with the second half of the group... which I think again are all girls so I am not sure what has happened to all the boys?! The other girls are all very nice though, the tour guide Patrick seems a bit daunted by us all but he seems very sweet if not a little negative.
The tour groups first stop was Ilha Grande, a big island off the coast of Brazil. The weather was gorgeous and the island beautiful, a real tropical paradise. And since it is winter here the beaches are empty and the town peaceful, it was a time to relax for us all before the hard work starts!
While on the island some of the group decided to hike to one of the beaches as supposed to getting the boat - the beach was Lopes Mendes which is considered one of the nicest beaches in Brazil. It was easy to see why when we arrived after the 3 hour hike! Unfortunately we had let Patrick set the pace and seeing as he is super fit we were all nearly dying by the time we reached the beach but it was very worth it! We decided it was probably best to get the boat back and were rewarded when we saw the sunset on the island.
Ilha Grande is beautiful, I don't think the pictures do it quite the justice it deserves. The town is really small but all the locals are very nice and friendly. The town itself looks like something out of Disneyland with brightly painted buildings and cobbled streets. There are some lovely places to eat, all food in Brazil is lovely. The one place we found had a Spanish singer who sounded like Jack Johnson... and just as cute too!
On our second day there some of the group decided to go for a 'short' walk... 5 hours later when we were still walking round the island we realised we had gone horribly wrong somewhere. Completely lost we tried to find a pier where the taxi boats usually visited. After walking through a swamp, trespassing on private property (big houses with thankfully very poor security) and even considering climbing over a barbed wire fence we eventually found some locals who spoke a little English and with our phrase book and much hand waving we found a fisherman who agreed to take us back. Thank goodness, it was starting to get dark and we didnt fancy spending the night in the hills.
We arrived back thinking the others would be a bit concerned about our whereabouts. Turns out the people who stayed behind went on a cruise, had far too much to drink and had their own dramas that day so were not at all interested to hear about our adventure. Although it was funny to watch the other tour guide for another group, very drunk after the booze cruise collapse outside the hostel and all the locals to come out and watch.
There was another tour group on the island who had done our trip but in reverse, so we went out that night for drinks with them. We found that there tour guide was a complete sleeze and rubbish at his job so we all suddenly became very grateful for negative Patrick who even helped us hatch an escape plan from this other tour guide! Had a great night and the other tour group gave us all the inside info for the rest of the trip... although I wish I had not heard that it can get below -18 degrees in the salt flats! But they had a couple in their late 60s so if they can do it then so can I! They were great actually and I really hope I am like that when I am that age.
So thats it for now... will hopefully get the pictures up soon.
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