So Poo Lo

We set off on our 6 hour bus journey to Sao Paulo after enjoying the tranquility of Parati, having heard that Sao Paulo had some great nightlife to offer. The coach was surprisingly quite spacious with reclining chairs and adjustable feet rests, you don`t get that on national express! They did turn up the air con on this bus though which I loved but Jen wasn`t so keen! 

After enjoying a taxi ride which wasn`t operated by a maniac (like in rio) we arrived at our hostel `city lights hostel`. We chose this one online back in the UK and it was a toss up between this and another hostel called `limetime hostel` which we found out later was the party hostel to go to. Climbing the stairs to our room I wasn`t overly impressed to see that I had to climb even higher with the highest bunk bed I`d ever seen (about 8 foot high), Jen having shotgunned the bottom bunk. Could have been worse though as the next room had a 3 tier bunk bed which was about 12 foot high! 

The next day we went to the reception area and asked for a map which they didn`t have so we thought we`d ask for a computer to use to check out where we could go. They didn`t have that either though but luckily I had my wifi device so we connected through that and decided to take the metro to the backpacker area where there was an Irish bar, thinking we could get to meet some other backpackers. Luckily we found a tourist info centre just off the metro so we got a map and some info from the helpful lady there. Off we set to the Irish bar only to find out it was shut until later so we thought we`d eat at american burger joint over the road. We were glad to see the chef was a Californian so we could easily chat and tried to order just one burger which we could share as we weren`t overally hungry only to see a massive burger each come out. O well, at least the cherry coke and drawing in were epic.

We set back off to the hostel to chill out for a while. After failing in the backpackers area, we thought we`d go and check out the buzzing hostel`s bar area but were greeted with nothing but an empty social area........not so cool. Instead we ventured out to the local happening area which was actually pretty cool but no-one really spoke any English so we struggled with the few words we could "una caiprihana e una cerveza por favor" which somehow managed to prompt the waitress into bringing me out 5 large 660ml bottles of beer! looks like we were staying in that bar then! After failing multiple times throughout the day we called it a night and crashed out.

A new day and we were determined to make the most of it, so we set off to view the city`s famous grafitti`d streets. Not sure why someone decided to draw batman with a cigarette with no batpants on, but they did anyway and it was pretty cool, so why not I suppose!

Being a true Brit abroad I thought why not roll up the shirt sleaves and even out the t shirt tan

After taking in all the art work (would be called vandalism in England), we set off to a massive park which was really cool. We chilled out and soaked in all the atmosphere. For all you gaming geeks like me, you`ll be pleased to know we saw the real life Eddy Gordo doing  Capoeira as he does in Tekken and as is Brazil`s martial art. 

After me trying to explain who Eddy Gordo was to Jen and getting nowhere we were wondering what a load of noise was coming from over the park so we got up and checked it out. After struggling to see through a big crowd that had developed we pushed closer, only to find out that people were gathering to see a group of naked people sat in a circle ranting about something so we swiftly left. But we did come across this cool tree!

After the park we went back to the hostel to chill again and thought we`d venture back out the backpacker area at night to party on down. However after venturing out a bit in the rain with the streets looking dark and quite scary, we decided to stay in and grab a nice pizza from a local restuarant. Following the lack of partying in the so called party city I aptly named it "So Poo Lo". Should have gone to LimeTime hostel!

The next day we went for a stroll around the centre of Sao Paulo and Jen was excited to see a small building inbetween some massive ones, I`m still not sure why this picture was so exciting!

However we did get to see a cool Cathedral, the biggest in the world in its neo-gothic style. Not that you can make it out but there was a minature version of the Christ Redeemer in the entrance way which was also pretty cool, with people posing by it. We didn`t feel the need, saw it earlier.....nahhhh nah nah nahhhhhh nah (I`m sure you understand that from the typing!)

With So Poo Lo ticked off the list we set off on our epic 16 hour bus journey to Foz.

New flip flops

Thanks to Jack´s love of beer (and spending our joint funds on it) I get to spend some of our money on new flip flops!

Sweet.

Crazy wildlife we`ve come across along the way

As I sit here at 1.30am local time writing this blog, I can no longer be arsed to put it in order as I can barely see the keys and more on the keyboard as George Michael, Spandau Ballet and Phil Collins seem to be on loop, whilst Jen is in bed fast asleep, and a guy from America called Chad keeps yabbing in my ear about how cool English people are (no idea where he got that view from!), so here are some random photos of weird and wonderful wildlife we have come across, which is by no means an exclusive list as there are loads of things we didn`t get to snap.

So here`s a lizard thingy that was roaming around on top of sugar loaf mountain in rio, no idea how it got up there but there were quite a few of them roaming about up there. No danger to humans apparently.

This weird little chap was running around on a rock by the water slide in Parati, he kinda looks like a bit of wood on little legs.

Some cool flowers snapped somewhere, can`t really remember where

A cool butterfly that only took 15 attempts at getting the perfect photo. Who knew butterflies open and shut their wings alot.

Some other cool flowers we came across on our jeep tour in Parati, Gregorio told us there were over 11,000 different species in Brazil, STATO! 

Here`s a cool fish that was in an enclosed area in Ilha Grande at some hostel that claimed to be the party hostel but when we visited there was about 3 groups sitting there and there was no atmosphere whatsoever. But there was a cool fish, perhaps thats what they meant by party hostel, theres a fish having a party there on his own. what am I going on about......its late!

This big old snail was blocking our entrance to our hostel in Ilha Grande at the top of the massive hill that we dreaded when walking home each night. not so easy after cheap cachaça in the dark in flip flops that keep breaking!

Some more cool flowers, I forget where

A turtle chilling out at turtle lake in the botanical gardens in Rio (which took forever to get to, should have got the bus). Turtle lake was about the 12 foot by the way so not as epic as it first sounds!

This little chap landed on my at the top of Sugar Loaf mountain. It scared the ish outta me so I quickly swatted it off onto Jen who freaked out and swatted it off onto the concrete next to us. After realising it wasn`t anything dangerous (we thought anyway) we realised how cool it was and got this pic. Colourful little thing.

These massive lillies were in the botanical gardens in Rio, the biggest was a good 2 1/2 foot in diameter, pretty cool. With fish and turtles swimming in between them. Jen convinced me that they wouldn`t take my weight so I didn`t step on one against my will. Probably right, but we`ll never know...if they can support that brown leaf there then surely.......o well

Jen sitting under a tree which had pink flowers, loads of which had fallen to the ground making a pretty little area and some clever chappy had put a bench there making for this nice little pic.

So as Chad keeps telling me that the America dollor gets a better exchange rate than the pound in Argentina (it does but I don`t have any and he doesn`t seem to understand that it will be more expensive for me to change pounds to dollars to pesos instead of just pounds to pesos) I round this blog up at 2am local time (4 am to you lot who were in bed ages ago) with a minibus to catch in 6 hours to the Iguaçu falls,. The things I do for you guys writting blogs til this time in the morning, too busy to do it in the day.

Time to get some sleep.

No Chad, I don`t want to talk about exchange rates again (whoops I`m writing this aren`t I?!)

Defo off to bed

Parati / Parachi / Paraty (who knows how you pronounce it!)

We jumped back on the boat and then minibus for a 3 hour or so trip to Paraty, or Parati or Parachi, depending on who you speak to it has a different pronounciation. Ilha Grande would take some beating but we had heard good things about this next destination; Shame my feet were still getting bitten to bits, seems I`m tasty after all.

Parati itself is a quaint little fishing town with good food and beaches and a lively atmosphere. Its a bit old school with cobbled streets and funny little houses and shops.

With a free boat trip booked with our ticket we organised back in the UK, we thought we`d have a cheap day. After being assured our boat was at the pier we wondered down and couldn`t find out boat `The Sir Francis Drake` anywhere. Wondering where it was and if we`d been screwed over we ran around with precious little time trying to find out boat. With numerous flip flop mishaps we finally found it right at the very end of the pier and jumped about. (The boat below isn`t it by the way, we just thought it was a cool looking boat with the Brazil flag and colours!)



Once again we visited some amazing beaches and lagoons, with water clear as can be, tropical fish surrounding the boat once the engines were switched off. I was all beached out after Ilha Grande but Jen was after an awesome tan so she ventured out on a little dingy which was one of three options.....Dingy to beach, jump in the lagoon, or chill on the boat in the shade.....guess which one I chose?!

So off Jen set on her dingy for her own little piece of paradise, looking like she was deserted on a beach. Our mates had moved on to other places missing Parati out so it was just the two of us, depicted in this lonley photo!

The next day however we bumped into some people we knew on a jeep tour of the area which took us to some natural springs, waterfalls and cachaça distillaries. The jeeps were pretty cramped but at least they were cool as they had no sides.

We saw some pretty cool water falls on the jeep trip, building us up to Iguaçu falls which we would visit in only a few days.

There was a natural water slide created by the water running over some rocks which everyone could treat as a proper water slide. The tour guides would grab an arm each and throw you down so you got a bit of momentum. Here`s two of our English mates who went down together, I`ve never heard a girl scream so much......until it came to Jen. Off she set, propelled by the guides only for her to turn around and go down backwards. Trying to correct herself whilst looking over her shoulder, all she could do was let out a little yelp and splash down at the bottom the wrong way round, hitting both her ankles on the rock she just slide down. She`s still nursing the scrapes days later but is thankful that the scrapes missed her tattoo!

Gregorio, our tour guide, took us all to a cachaça distilly where we were all allowed to sample which ever ones we wanted. There were some nastier ones made purely from sugar cane, Brazil`s favourite called `Gabriella`which was flavoured with cinammon (which I personally thought was poo, sorry to any Brazilians reading this!) and then some sweeter ones made with fruits, the pineapple one was bad ass. 

Good old Gregorio was pretty good with his English, giving info on everything in both Portugese and English and sometimes Spanish where he good. However he spoke quick and didn`t realise that he kept switching between languages without noticing.....no one had the heart to tell him, instead we just smilled and nodded!

 We of course had to get a photo in the distillery of a massive barrel with a Brazil flag on it!



Ilha Grande

We met a couple of girls in our Rio hostel who were from Leeds and studied languages at uni, both Spanish and Portugese so my plan was to follow them around seeing as we could speak barely any. Shame I bored them to sleep on the 2 hour journey to Ilha Grande. I always bore Jen to sleep so that`s no surprise!

The girls woke up and we were at the small port on the mainland, setting sail to Ilha Grande on a small 30 min boat ride. Mad photo skills in capturing the Brazilian flag flying proud on our boat.

The island was much bigger than we expected when we got there. Loads of people milling about on the pier which is where we spent some nights drinking (2 quid for a litre of cachaça).

Our hostel was pretty basic and the owner could barely speak any English so we had to deal with a lot of hand gestures. Where are those girls when you need them?! It was a right mission getting there too, up a massive hill with 20 kilos strapped to our backs and 10 kilo on the front. Jen had to stop a few times claiming she couldnt make it. Good training for Machu Pichu though. We met some cool people in the hostel like this Swedish girl who tought us how to play some weird space ship drum thingy, better than the pretencious guitar.

A treat was in order as it was Valentines Day so we splashed out on this seafood/fish platter which was amazing. Everything in Brazil gets served with a portion of rice and beans as well, like this platter wasnt enough.

The next day we went on a boat trip with some guys we met in Rio and some of their friends to see some of the islands lagoons, beaches and other hidden surprises. One of these surprises was a random cave half way round the island which had a super tiny entrance. Heres Jen after she peered down into it.

I wasn`t kidding about how tight it was, here`s our mate Gil looking stuck on his way back up as we ventured down.

But it was worth getting to the bottom (not that this photo proves). There was a underground stream running where the sunlight hit water. There was a shimmering reflection from the water which seemed to light up the cave. The tour guides had to hold your legs as you peered down under the water into the abyss or else the stream would have swept you deeper into the underground cave, whilst all the time the cave roof centimetres from your head. The view in the water was epic though, crystal clear water with marine life floating about with the sunlight illuminating the underwater world.

On the way back, we stopped off at some lagoons, the water as crystal clear as the cave. It was a good place to snorkel and see some exotic fish, one of the lads we were travelling about with was lucky enough to see a sea turtle and some sea horses.

The following day we ventured back out with the same group of friends but this time on a 3 hour trek to one of the top beaches Brazil has to offer, through the vegetation the island is swallowed in. It was gruelling work with some of the terrain pretty tricky to traverse.

We were told that once we reach a small beach that there was only another 20 minutes to go so we were super happy when we came across a small rocky beach after just 90 mins of walking. We thought people had overestimated how long it took or we were super quick.

However it wasn`t to be, we had to go across another 3 beaches before we reached the beach we were actually after. Jen`s face says it all below!

It was all worth it in the end though after an actual 3 hour trek. Super white sand and water as blue as it could be. Voted one of the best beaches in the world and you can see why, Lopes Mendes Beach was finally there for us to enjoy (Jen more than me, I hate the beach!). Google it, as this photo doesn`t really capture it in all it`s glory, and if you get time, get yourselves out here!

Here we are relaxing with an ice cold beer to celebrate our mammoth journey (there was some dude selling them at the beach entrance, I love that guy). 

Here are all our travelling buddies enjoying the beach and sun, me chilling out in the shade with my beer. After that trek there was no way we were going to walk back again, so we caught the taxi boat back for a fiver each. For some crazy reason Apurva (on the far right) decided he was going to walk back and managed it in 80 minutes, not sure how, maybe we were just super slow!

After a day of deserved chilling out after a morning of hiking, the few days weren`t quite so chilled, nursing all the bites from mosquitioes and other ants and things in the sand. Was making me itch so bad that I made them bleed.