Seaside colonial style beauty - Paraty
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Hmmm that headline sounds a bit like a travel brochure, but this place is truly beautiful.
We arrived quite late at night (about 10pm) and checked into our new accommodation - a place called the Blue Lagoon (Lagoa Azul) - just on the outskirts of the main town. It is a Spanish/Portuguese style villa with an open courtyard in the middle with a guitar shaped pool which is indeed blue and very inviting... especially after 5 hours on the minibus. The rooms were very spacious and comfortable and certainly the best presented so far with lots of wooden furniture and fixtures, and a nice big bed.
Our first full day in Paraty was spent exploring the old quarter of town with cobble stone streets (more like boulders) and wonderfully painted buildings... like a cleaner, less touristy version of La Boca in BsAs. I have never taken so many photos of doors, window and bicycles. They must have some control on street signage as well, as even the local pizzerias and bars have very modest signs next to their doors. Even at 10am the streets were getting very hot and I think it would have reached at least 40C in the town itself.
We weren´t too worried about the heat though, because after exploring some of the historic sights we were going to go on a boat trip out to some islands and beaches around Paraty and the temperature would be a lot cooler. We boarded the schooner which was called the Estrela da Manhã IV (Star of the morning) and we found the upper deck covered with cushions and quickly took our place up there in comfort! =) Our MC for the tour Fabio or just `Fab´ was great and played guitar for us in a kind of lazy beachside bossanova style... now this is how to holiday in style. The schooner hadn´t even left the pier and we were happy just to laze about.
For some reason the pier was a bit of a mess with all of the boats, launches, tour schooners tangled up in the night (on hearing this later, Julio laughed and says this always happens) so it took us a while to get underway. Once away the temperature did drop by at least 5C with the water and a nice cool breeze. Fab did a door prize draw of our boarding passes and our number came up as well as Roger´s - another traveller from our group. Our prize was a free Capeirinha and our new friends Rebecca, Kat, Emma, Jacky and Deb were a little bit jealous.
The Caipirinha is the Brazilian national drink, and contains cachaça (40proof sugar cane liquor) with limes and sugar and sometimes vodka.
We stopped at a secluded beach and most people jumped into the water instantly. I jumped on board the dinghy to get to the beach with my camera equipment all wrapped up in a dry-sack. Kellie got to hold a spiky sea urchin while I was busy chasing sea crabs that had burrows all along the beach. When it was time to go, the boat blew its horn four times and people swam back and got back on board.... hang on.... where is that dinghy??? I was standing on the beach by myself and hoping not to get left behind (although I could think of much worse places to be stranded). Luckily others stumbled back along from the far side of the beach too and we managed to get back on board without further incident.
We continued the cruise and on the next stop our helpful deck hands were throwing bread into the water to attract a variety of fish and Fab decided to go swimming as well. He pulled the biggest star fish up off the sea floor and gave it to Kellie who was in the water again to hold. It was so heavy that it´s arms were bent over.
A storm was beginning to build up and you could see a bit of anxiety on the captain´s face, so the cruise was postponed until we could sit out the rough water in another beautiful secluded bay. That was pretty much it for the cruise.
There are a lot of islands in the area around Paraty which have restaurants built upon them. You can catch a boat out to one eat, drink, be merry and then sail back into town. I wish we had more time to stay here.
This has definitely been one of our favourite days so far, and has really let us relax and wind down. Tango....? What tango? =)
Posted byAndrew at 12:05 am 1 comments
Labels: travel
Welcome to São Paulo...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I cannot believe how lucky we have been with the weather here though. It rained quite a bit in Buenos Aires which sucked a little but everytime we have done outdoor activities with our tour group we have ended up having really nice weather. Like the day we went to the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls, it was a beautifully sunny day and now it´s raining cats and dogs again. A few people from our group went to the bird park in Foz do Iguaçu and got to touch a toucan which sounded like lots of fun... we are just suffering a little from a bit of burnout at the moment and really benefited from the sleep in.
The morning we left the Brazilian town of Foz do Iguaçu was gloomy and grey. We had a bit of rain and thunder to contend with. No problems with the flight except for a little turbulence just before we landed in São Paulo.
São Paulo is HUGE.... the population (about 23 million and growing) is bigger than the entire population of Australia and makes Adelaide seem like a tiny country town. We were just passing through which I think everyone was happy to do, so it was all very safe for us.
After a hold up with our luggage at the airport (all of the luggage came out first except for one of my bags which came out almost dead-last) we were off for our trip to Paraty in two buses. The highways are crowded and chaotic and drivers here don´t seem to have the same organic commonsense as the chaotic drivers in Buenos Aires or Phuket in Thailand. It may explain some of the thousands road deaths a year in Brazil. We even had a narrow miss with a smaller car when our driver was changing lanes... luckily we were only travelling at around 15km/h at the time.
Julio was trying to find us some place to eat lunch and we pulled over into almost every dodgy little truck stop we passed. It was crazy, and not one of us looked forward to eating at all. We did get to stop at a pretty good place though. It was still a truck stop / diner at the side of the road, but it was a pretty good churrascaria style buffet (more buffets......aaargh!!!) with decent meats and the salads were pretty cool too. We got to try our first manioc flour dish which was dry and pretty tasteless (we put this down to the fact that it was a truck stop, but we were proven wrong as each time we have this dish it is the same).... maybe a bit harsh, but I don´t think I would order this on purpose.
At least we can say that we ate at one of the most dangerous cities in the world and survived to tell the tale! =)
On the way again and it is starting to get dark. The drive down to the coastal town of Paraty is very windy and a bit scary in the dark. Especially as drivers here have the tendency to turn off their headlights completely when a car in front is near and use the hazard lights instead to show their presence on corners etc.
I had my iPod on my ears for pretty much the entire trip just to chill out a bit.
Posted byAndrew at 1:15 am 0 comments
"Hey guys!"
A little more on our GAP tour guide Julio. Our first meeting in BsAs was interesting and involved a note beginning with "Hey Guys!" which we became used to for the rest of the trip... it was a bit of a catchcry.
He is from a village in Peru and has lived in Lima, Peru and Rio de Janeiro. He has proven to be a great guide and very knowledgeable and intelligent. Definitely one of the better English speakers we have met here. We were at a pub the other night and he was telling us that he completed his studies with a masters with the topic of Shamanism... I wonder if they offer that back at home. Very accommodating too and we were sorry to have to say goodbye a couple of days ago.
Posted byAndrew at 1:09 am 0 comments
It´s showtime! Rafain Churrascaria Show
After braving a walk to the local supermarket in Foz do Iguaçu to pick up some water, we jumped on the bus with our fearless tour guide Julio and our informative local operator Antonio to go to see a show and get some buffet dinner (just in case we haven´t been putting on enough weight already!). It was the Rafain Churrascaria Show and was actually pretty good value, although the amount of corn was very high. It was a bit cheesy too but that seems to be the norm over here =) hehe.
The cultural show featured dancing from all over South America and started with Paraguay (did I mention that we got to see Paraguay a couple of days earlier while our bus was stopped on a bridge half way in Argentina and half way in Brazil?) and moved on to Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and others. When the tango came on I was very aware of pretty much everyone looking at Kellie and I at one point or another to see our reactions. The tango was ok, but seemed like a rehearsed performance by people who hadn´t necessarily learned the dance (the dancers performed in most of the different dances) and seemed a little forceful at times. The highlights of the night were the Capoeira, and Samba but there was one with a woman dancing with Bolas or Boleadoras which was amazing... very percussive and my favourite.
The food was great and there was a grill with lots of different meats and some strange and surprising mixtures at the salad bar.
Posted byAndrew at 12:49 am 0 comments
Iguazu Falls (Day 2)
The hotel we are staying in at Iguazu is quite nice and the rooms are very large which is a relief (especially since Kellie bought another small cabin suitcase in BsAs and we really need the room now). Started again with breakfast and jumped onto the bus to cross the border back into Argentina. It was a public holiday in Argentina so the traffic was incredible. Our GAP leader Julio, had some ringing around and internet bookings to organise so we were entrusted to our local guide, Antonio, for the day.
On arrival at the border, we noted a little anxiously all of the cars, motorbikes as well as buses and coaches.... lots of buses and coaches. Antonio grabbed all of our passports to take to the customs booth and we waited...and waited...and waited. A couple of nervous jokes about how much an Australian passport fetches on the blackmarket and he jumped back in the bus -- after about a 2 hour wait... Sheesh. The temperature is also climbing and only after we got back to the hotel did we find out it got to 40C which was lots of fun along with the humidity. =)
The Argentine side of Iguazu is amazing and you are able to get really close to one of the falls called the Devil´s Throat (Garganta del Diablo) - a U-shaped, loud, grumbling, roaring, rolling area of the falls. Very impressive and humbling. To get there we had to take a light-gauge electric passenger tram which helped me attain an understanding of how sardines may feel. After that there is a 15 minute walk through the river which is like the mangrove areas back home. There are butterflies everywhere. They alight on your hats, bags, backs, hands, cameras... pretty much anything. After a while you kinda ignore them and they just don´t have the same effect.... then you see one with a completely different colour or pattern and it´s all very cool again. Speaking of plague proportions... there are so many people here you really hope that the platform holds. Almost impossible to get a photo without other people in it too.
We walked back and grabbed some lunch. There were two options a restaurant offering a buffet or a cafe with simple fare. Opting for the latter we were still impressed with our beef sandwiches which were awesome. Even the dodgy cafe in the middle of a national park has some of the best tasting steak.
After satisfying our hunger, we went along the Upper Trail (Paseo Superior) which gave us a great view of both the Argentine and the Brazilian sides of the falls. The walk was only about an hour but by now we were both feeling the heat and humidity as well as getting sore feet. We´d already walked so far.
After a very short rest and a quick chat in Spanish with another refugee from the heat (well it was a *very* quick chat) we headed off for the Lower Trail (Paseo Inferior) which we thought would be a lot cooler. It was cooler but still humid so we suffered all the same. We continued but rationalised that we didn´t need to do the whole trail, just enough to get to one of the falls where you get the spray misting over the viewing area. It would be lovely. Only problem was that we had to content with the crowds of ignorant sufferable people going slow, getting in the way, ignoring the signs and feeding the animals and generally being a nuisance. I couldn´t work in hospitality... I´d end up stabbing someone with a dinner plate. Whoops getting a bit sidetracked. I amused a group of Argentines after they asked me to take their photo by jumping over the barrier separating the walkway into two halves so that I could have enough room between us for the photo to work. When we arrived at the falls we were after, I gave up. There were way too many people here. Took some photos and resigned to walking back.
It was a bit of a relief to get back to the hotel. We stopped very quickly at the biggest souvenir store I have ever seen to go to the money exchange house which was a part of it. This place was about as big as a Woolworths store.
Posted byAndrew at 12:02 am 0 comments
Labels: travel