It was time to start feeling like a true traveller and work our way out of the city. Anita and I both agreed that although we had loved Rio, we were getting itchy feet. We took a bus from the Rodovaria (bus station) north of the city for Agra Dos Reis to the West, then on a boat to Ilha Grande. Approaching the island was very interesting, Anita and I paralleled it to watching the movie Jurassic Park with rolling hills covered in dense folliage and palm trees. The approach to the port at dusk was just like arriving at Utopia. Pretty lights lined the shore and rustic furniture spilled out of restaurants along wooden boulevards, and not a car in sight.
We started to quickly realise that the best way to get tips on what to do was to simply talk with other travellers. Two girls that we met in the Biergarten Hostel Lindsay and Jenny suggested the 2.5 hour trek to the Lopez Mendes beach on the south side of the island, which we did the following morning. On the way we passed these little monkey-rat-squirrel things on the way that on first sight looked quite cute, but we decided they looked like they wanted to nick your wallet so we shuffled along quickly. The beach was like paradise beach and we stayed lolling about swimming and sleeping for the best part of the afternoon before taking the boat back to the main port.
One of the best money saving ploys we had discovered in our short time in South America was to eat a ham and cheese toastie from the free buffett at breakfast, then make another one for lunch. So up to this point we had classified what we ate into one of two categories of meals: ham and cheese toastie or NOT ham and cheese toastie. This allowed us to splash out on dinner. By this point in the trip we calculated we had eaten at least a dozen ham and cheese toasties and counting. Today we made our toastie and headed back to the mainland and on a local bus to a little colonial town called Paraty a couple of hours away.
Paraty was so quaint you just wanted to roll it up and take it with you in your pocket! Cobbled streets, well maintained little squares with white washed colonial buildings lining the perimeter. Brightly coloured windows all around, pinks, blues, purples, greens, and matching flowered vines surrounding every entrance door. There was a strong European influence, and little trinket shops and well decorated little restaurants we around every turn. Just lovely! Our hostel was on the beach, but we were starting to see the downgrade in hostel facilities, and we were sharing a tiny room stacked 3 beds high with 8 other guys, who openly admitted they hadn´t done any clothes washing for roughly 3 weeks. Fortunately, however, we had arrived just in time for a samba festival that many locals attended each year. After a few drinks on the beach we got our groove on and watched all the live acts. It was great fun and interesting as there were many Brazilans who travelled to the town especially for the event.
We decided to stay another night for the festival and the following night had a barbeque with some other travellers and a few of the local guys Tomas from Argentina, and Eddie from Brazil. We all sat around the barbeque talking culture and football, mixing the Brazilian language Portugese with English. We ate melt in the mouth steak and listened to London Drum & Bass music from the sound system as the waves lap the beach. It was amazing how easy it is build bridges between cultures when food and football is involved!
It was then to bed after a late night as we tried to get our head around the fact we had a 21 hour bus journey west to the Iguacu Falls the following day.
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