Coming round the last bend....

Another entry, another Brazilian beach stop in little old Rio state.

You may detect a theme forming here, and there is a reason for this -
to be discussed later...**

So here I am in Paraty, a super little ex-colonial town which is
blessed with both a really pretty historic centre, complete with rather
difficult to navigate extra large cobble stones and really fab old
buildings painted in pretty colours, and is also surrounded by amazing
beaches and islands and jungle fringed coastlines.

Which would all be lovely, if the bloody sun would come out! Have now
been here four days and nothing but grey skies and the odd bout of
drizzle. Is very frustrating as my increasing desperation to come home
with a tan is looking very likely to be unfulfilled.

Anyway, ferried and bussed it the short hop here from Ilha Grande which
after staying there a week I became rather attached to, such was it's
soothing laid back charm. However, I confess I did actually stay one
day longer than planned due to a Caiprhini casualty incident. Thinking
it would be a good idea to get everyone out on the town as a bit of a
last night send off, we started on these delicious but lethal cocktails
back at the hostel and continued the theme out ont the town/hamlet.

But after a pleasant night which ended up in the island nightclub
watching the locals do their very impressive moves on the dancefloor
(all dancing in couples and doing a kind of Portugese swing which I was
mesmerised by) me and my dorm-mate, Ariana, repaired to bed feeling a
bit tipsey nothing more. However, we awoke with the pukiest hangovers
from hell. Excuse the following detail but we were literally taking it
in turns for the bathroom as we heaved our way through the morning...

All I could do was relay a message through my other poor dorm-mate that
there was no possible way I could check out that day. We attempted to
get up at 1pm to no avail. I went back to bed while Ariana pottered out
to the hammock a metre outside the door. But when I woke again at 3pm
she was back in bed; so at least it wasn't just me. There was some
speculation it could have been what we ate. Well I'm not so sure, but a
completely wasted day while the sun blazed away outside. Gutted!

** Now, onto the news I know you have all been waiting for...

The reason I have been hanging around Rio state, within sambering
distance of the great city itself is that I have made a big decision to
come home early. Yes, that's right, even earlier than the original plan
to come home early.

My grand ambition to make my budget stretch through the seven month
travel itinery has faltered somewhat, so I'm doing the responsible
thing and calling it a day. And to be honest, I feel rather content
pottering around the nice beaches of Brazil rather than ploughing on along
the hardcore trail through Bolivia and Peru. It's all very relaxing down here -
and somtimes it's even warm and sunny - so a super way to end the trip I think.

The nice people at Qantas have said it's no probs to fly me home early
and from Rio instead of Lima - yeay! Only problem is all the flights to
London are full over the next few weeks - not so yeay. So I'm on a
waiting list for a seat and hoping to get back around next weekend, ie,
8th Sept.

Will obviously confirm a return date when I have one, but get those
'Welcome home Sally' banners and bunting at the ready, not long to go
now....!