I met my tour group for the next 4 weeks on Monday, all girls and one guy who´s 63, but he´s quite cool. He´s from Columbia and lives in Texas. The girls are ok, sharing a room with Jennifer, she´s from Bristol and the same age so that´s cool. We´re the only Brits, others are from S. Africa, US and Canada. The group has been fine, but already getting annoyed with the tour leaders voice, which is beginning to grate on me somewhat and also the whole group decision thing...becoming annoying and already 4 days in. I think I´ll just have to start doing my own thing if I can´t be bothered with people as it just takes time for people to make up their minds.Anyway, here goes.... After meeting the tour group on Monday we set off from Rio on Tuesday morning after the minibus being 2 hours late! Which then meant that we missed the 3:30pm (last ferry) to Ilha Grande. A small island about 2 hours away by boat from coast of Brazil. We then had to wait until 5pm for this small boat to take us to the island. The journey was eventful to say the least! It was raining and we were getting wet on the boat, there was then a young boy on his own making his way by boat home from school, he was sick everywhere....lets just say he should have chewed his spaghetti a little more, it was disgusting...so then everyone including me had to move and the boat was packed so we were just falling all over the place. We then came across a stranded boat and had to get the boat attached to ours and tow it to the island. The boy was then sick again... I´ll say no more! The sea was rough and was coming over the boat which was pretty scary!
We finally arrived in Ilha Grande, a small paradise. It was such a cute little village, with no cars allowed on the island. We arrived at our hotel, after walking through torrential rain to get there with our rucksacks on. Our hotel was lots of small huts, had ensuite and airconditioning and hammocks hung outside. It was so lovely. I´m sharing with Jen I think for most of the journey, think they paire us up cause we´re the same age. Anyway, I went to get changed after arriving and everything in my bag was soaking wet....our room became a laundrette. It was so wet, ended up getting most of it washed and dryed by the hotel. Oh yes...noone elses bag got wet, typical that it was me! On Weds the weather was ok, not great so we decided to go for a hike to the other side of the mountain, this meant going up and then down the other side. It was bloody hard work I tell you, but was looking forward to the boat journey around the island when we got to the other side. We arrived and my legs were killing me, we had to sign ourselves in and out of this small village. There was a prison on that side....the guy also informed us that there was no boats running! Oh my god, you can imagine my reaction! So, we sat on this gorgeous beach for about 30 mins and then had to think about the long treck back...I wasn´t happy! I was walking up and up and up, never thought I was going to reach the top to come down the other side....I finally did! It was crazy, but I was very proud of myself as I´ve never walked that far, especially up and down a mountain! My feet were in bits and by body is still in pain today!! We went out on Weds night to a fish restaurant which was really nice.
Thursday half of the group went on a boat trip, I decided not to bother as the weather wasn´t that great and I hate being cold, and to be honest just wanted some chill time on my own. I went out with Stacey (a girl from US) and we got a manicure and a pedicure, my nails now look amazing! She put flowers on my thumb nails and big toes, they look so cool. Only cost 7quid for both! (Hannah, you should come here!) We then just went for lunch and I was feeling quite rough so just relaxed in the hammock for the afternoon.
We set off this morning, the guy from the hotel loaded all our bags into a trolley and pushed them all down to the ferry port. He was so sweet in his little yellow mac! We all got given a hotel umbrella, I felt like royalty, none of this rough travelling stuff!! We managed to catch the ferry this time, and there was some annoying child playing a recorder all the way on this 2 hour journey! (mp3 went on at that point!) We got to the mainland, still raining and caught a bus to Paraty. We arrived here a few hours ago, hotel is cool, got a pool and stuff. The town is an old colonial town and the buildings are beautiful. Yet to see too much. Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow so we can spend some time on the beach and have a walk around, as it´s just started raining again....not doing too well!
So, everything´s cool apart from the whole group decision stuff, but Jen and I have quite similar views so should all be ok. We´re here until Sunday and then we have a 6 hour bus journey to Sao Paulo and then a 22hour over night bus ride to Iguazzu falls....so heaps of travelling. But we have some good organised tours when we get there. We see the falls from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, should be fantastic.We are there for two nights and then make our way to Uraguay where we stay in the capital for a couple of nights.
Today we´ve been to Trinidad!...a small beach town just down the road from Paraty. We went on a little tour, had to climb over these massive boulders and the tide was coming in. I got a wet bum at one point, but was more worried about getting my camera wet! Taken some cool photos, but having some problems getting them online. Just comes up with Image on the site when I´ve published it rather than photo (anyone help!??) The weather was great so we got to sit onthe beach for a while, so caught up on the tanning from Rio. After the beach we went up into the mountains and saw some waterfalls and went to a distilary. The mountains were cool and there was some guy rock surfing, it was really cool. Apparentlty he was the current champion at this crazy sport! He was just gliding down the rocks on his feet, they were flatish slippy rocks!...well, I almost landed on my bottom anyway. A couple of the girls tried this surfing...but on their bums instead, landing in very fresh water!
