Day 1
After a 5 hour bus journey we arrived in Paraty. Quickly jumped into a taxi and arrived at our hostel, right on the beach!! Two guys awaited us nervously, apparently their system had been down so they were unable to provide us with a private room until the next day. Instead we still got a room to ourselves but just bunk beds. Josh and I literally didn't care all we wanted was a bed and sleep. However we were promised a discount, a free meal and a cocktail.
We woke up around 10ish and went straight to the beach, which is a 30 second walk from our hostel. We lay there relaxing for a couple of hours till we were hungry then ordered some food at the hostel bar. For the equivalent of £9 we got fresh fish, -chips and lots of rice with sweetcorn, ham, and cheese. So so yummy and cheap!!!! Paraty is so beautiful however definitely has a problem with stray dogs. I am not exaggerating in the slightest there are hundreds of them! Everywhere you go just walking around knowing the streets and just chilling together in the sun. So bizarre! I've known of stray cats but not this many dogs! Anyway Josh and I decided to take a walk around the historical Centre. It's so gorgeous, cobbled streets and old buildings. Loads of little stands and vintage like shops. Only a 5 minute from our beach hostel as well. We got ready then went down to the hostel bar on the beach to receive our free meal. We were greeted with a free Caipirinha each and that's where our night started! A couple of beers after we had received our free meal which was as many BBQ'd kebabs as we wanted with salad rice etc (yummy!) and we were feeling quite tipsy. We took the 5 min walk in to town stumbling all over the place and got a seat in one of the first bars we saw. Again 2 Caipirinha's later plus the amount of beers I can't remember we were wasted! I would love to blog about it but I don't remember anything else except me playing with the stray dogs and one grabbing my bag, josh kicking it in the face to let go and everyone looking at him like he was a monster. Oh and we got lost walking home. Other then that the next thing I remember is waking up the next morning not knowing how I got to bed!
Day 2
Waking up with a hangover and not wanting to move! We only just made breakfast which honestly did me the world of good. Fruit, cheese and ham panini's and fruit juice was the perfect combination. Whilst it made me feel better I could see Josh still struggling, normally he's invisible against hangovers! We lay on the beach for a bit, trying to not move too much. It was then we made our decision to stay in Paraty a further day. The thought of not having a good night rest and sleeping on a coach with our bad heads didn't appeal in the slightest! We felt like we needed to do something with our day so decided to ask the guy at our hostel about a mud bath we'd seen on the trips offered. He told us it was free and all natural and the directions, so with our worse swim wear and towels we made ourself up the hill to another beach in Paraty to cover ourselves in mud. It was so much fun! To be honest it stunk and just looked like a big sea of poo, but once you were in it felt so good. It felt like being in jelly! We covered our selves in it slivering along like seals, it's so hard to walk in all the mud gets stuck to you so lifting your feet takes forever. Josh even bombed into it! We spent a good hour in the mud before deciding we probably should attempt to wash it all off. Definitely wasn't the easiest to wash but the sea was surprisingly warm so I gave it a good attempt. Still stinking we went back to our hostel and found out our shower was broke. Could not of come at a worse time as I've never wanted a shower more in my life! The handy man at the hostel attempted to fix if whilst they allowed me to shower in the staff shower, I stood under the water for ages!!! My skin felt good, apparently the mud is really good for it. We decided to have a meal in the historical center which was yummy, I had fish and josh went for stroganoff. We then made our way for bed having survived a day of hangover!
Day 3
Feeling fresh we woke up and made our way down to breakfast for 8am. We just chilled and took our time sitting in the sun eating our panini's and eating all the fruit on offer. Just lovely! I could really get used to this life. Eventually we had to leave as check out was at 11am so we needed to put our stuff in the safety deposit room and hand back our key. We decided to spend our day at a nearby place called Penha where there is a waterfall called Tobogã. We walked to the bus station quickly booked our next destination, an over night bus to São Paulo. Then hoped on a bus to Penha. The waterfall was so easy to find, literally a 2 minute walk from the bus stop. It's so cool! Just this massive smooth rock with water flowing down. People use it as a slide. I'm the biggest wimp so I didn't go down just chilled on the rocks taking in the beauty, however Josh did and it looked like fun. The water flows and takes you down a massive rock slide. Josh was in paradise with all the geology around him and fascinated about the rock! We walked up to some more waterfalls finally finding a small restaurant. You had to take this bridge which went across the water. It looked like it would snap at any minute, also only 2 people can go across at a time. Again being the big wimp I am I was petrified but just looked ahead and literally ran across. I looked behind and Josh was strolling behind looking so much cooler then me. We sat down in the restaurant and ordered a kiwi Caipirinha. It was soooooo strong and took ages to drink, literally just alcohol with mushed up kiwi inside. There was a little sausage dog at the restaurant who was so cute! Every time we threw a rock she'd collect it and bring it back. We made our way across the horrible bridge and back down to the rock slide. There was a group of teenagers hanging out there, one in particular was amazing! He would go down the rock slide standing up doing a little jump and the end. He did so many little tricks, Josh and I watched him in awe. It motivated josh to stand the cold water and whilst I chilled below he went down the rock slide a few more times. After a couple of hours we made our way to the bus stop to discover we had just missed it and the next one wasn't for an hour. So decided to explore, we made our way down to a little walk way. There was a water mill close by and josh and I decided to investigate and found a alcohol distillery. As soon as we walked in a nice guy came to help us telling us all about the alcohol and showing us exactly how it was brewed then offering us tasters! I tried a caramel spirit which was 40% it was delicious! They guy added a bit if orange to it which made it even nicer. We tried a few more but decided the caramel was our favourite and decided to purchase a small bottle. We're hoping to bring it home but who knows there may be a night along the way!! Whilst waiting at the bus stop a taxi drove past and shouted for 3 Brazilian dollars he'd drop us at the bus stop, we jumped in! We quickly showered then for ready for our final meal in Paraty at a lovely place I'd noticed in town earlier. The prices were cheap but it was lovely inside with a man singing live music. For £15 we had a beer each, bread starter with oil and vinegar then a massive 2 person curry dish with lots of rice and potatoes. Brazil is one of the more expensive places we are going to visit but we weren't finding it hard to have good meals for cheap! The waiter was a bit moody, but we didn't care as we were having a gorgeous meal on a travellers budget.
We collected our bags from the hostel, walked the 20 min walk to the station and boarded our 6 hour journey to São Paulo to see another part of Brazil!