Brazil/ Paraty

Brazil is expensive, it is ridiculously expensive. Food, drinks, hotels, clothes, haircuts, taxis, everything. It is frustratingly expensive, a beer more expensive than London, a meal more than Paris and London. It was three times more than Buenos Aries, and it was starting to bug me.

We got to Paraty and it was raining, really raining, like the world was ending. So we checked in and went to the first pub we saw. Four draft beers £4, not even a full pint. On the stage there was a fella playing the guitar, the songs were in spanish and it was pretty terrible. We finished the beer got the bill and saw and extra £2 on the bill, each. We had been charged to watch the music. So for our 4 drinks, less than pints, they had cost us £24, b******s. The only consolation we had was telling two Europeans sitting on a table behind us what had happened, they left with us.

We then went to a small locals bar, now six of us, where the bottles (over a pint) were less than £2. The only problem was that the bar was ramshackled to say the least, the rain was pouring through the roof as we sat on the only dry table. 12 bottles we had before we got to the same price as the first bar!! We drank with the two Dutch people for a quite a few hours and ate some Moroccan food.

The next day it was still raining but determined not to be outdone by the rain Eliott booked us on to a tour of cachaca factories and waterfalls. It was a great day. The cachaca factories were lots of fun, we certainly took full advantage of the free samples. We tried every conceivable type, aged, flavoured any thing they had. It was lovely. I drew the line at the horrible banana flavoured.

But the highlight was not the alcohol, it was the waterfalls. Like kids we dived in the pools, swam in the rivers and swung on the rope swing. Lots and lots of fun. The water was lovely and the rain, for now, had abated. It was a fun time. We were high up in the rain forest and it was great, wild life, alcohol and messing around in the river.

Then back to paraty and rain. We had a few drinks in a local bar with the guide, a few turned in to a lot and by the time we left, running, we were being offered any drugs we wanted by the guide. We left him sharpish had some food, then bed ready for rio and the carnival the next day.