Parati

Sunday morning we woke up early and had breakfast at the hostel. We signed out, put on our massive backpacks and headed into the rain again. The walk to the pier involves walking along the beach.. which has a lot of rivers... and then along mud roads to the 'town' which has about 10 shops and then along the slippery pier to the boat.

Our ferry back to the mainland was much nicer than the journey out. On the way out our ferry was a little wooden boat which got completely soaked in the bad weather. However on the way home we came back on a big boat with proper seats! Very exciting! The journey back was bizarre, waiting for the sun to come through the clouds. Some of the islands looked like parts of northern Scotland, besides the palm trees.

As we came up to the mainland the thing that strikes you most is the colour. The houses; pink, green, yellow, orange, blue... all climb up the hillsides away from the beach up into the rainforest. After wondering around the town asking millions of people how to get to Parati... we finally found the bus stop. The bus was less disgusting than we'd anticipated. However the bus drivers in this country have no sense of fear... They fly into the bends sending the bus (and the passengers) lurching to the side and leaning dangerously.

2 hours later we arrived in Parati bus station and managed to ask various people till we found our way to our hostel. Its right on the edge of the town up against a jungly cliff near the beach. Its about ten minutes walk from the historic centre of Parati which is beautiful. Its all cobbled (no cars) and is full of little shops and restaurants. Last night we went out into Parati and had tapioca pancakes, which is the weirdest thing to describe. Its salty, chewy, jelly-like pancake things which look like they're dusted in sugar-- however taste very salty. We had ones filled with spinach and cheese and tomato. Liz very much approved of them (accustomed strange veggie tastes) however I found them a bit much.. the texture seeming to override much enjoyment gained from the flavour.

After that we walked past a large church. It's the festival of Santa Rita here at the moment and the church was packed full of people singing with red and white roses. The historic centre feels very Portguese and colonial in style, the church is all big and golden fruhfruh. The atmosphere was incredible.. even though we didn't really understand what the service was about the strength of belief that was apparent in peoples lives was moving.


Then we wandered along the sea front eating Churros, - Liz's favourite, before heading back to the hostel. The hostel is very sweet complete with a pool and random wandering horse in the garden - lots of mosquitos here though!

Today we woke up and it's Liz's birthday! We had breakfast with some of the lovely hostel owners... who had cooked her a heart shaped cake, then booked horseriding. We were picked up by taxi half an hour later and taken out to a little stable just out of town. The man who took us didnt speak a word of English, he handed us a horse and off we went. We had no instruction, no questions asked, no helmet and no payment (they're not pushy about it, the entire Brazillian lifestyle is slow). We did western style riding, with sit up sadles which are more comfortable than English sadles.

The ride took us through the town and up into the hills. We passed through so many different types of scenery. We went up past little villages and through the mountains. The scenery here is incredible, the little houses and stray dogs set against the backdrop of cloud topped rainforest clad hills feels like something out of 'The Motorcyle Diaries'. I have taken photos but none of them seem to capture the incredible atmosphere. We went up mud tracks and about half way turned off and went off the road into the jungle on a muddy path. It was similar paths to the ones we had been climbing on our Lopes Mendes trek in Ilha Grande, which was rather slippery with the horses hooves, so there were a few hairy moments. Also on the way back we came off the road and went back along the river, there wasn't really a path so most of the ride was done between beaches along the river. We walked through the river, and even on horse back I was up to my knees in the water. The horses were brilliant considering the strength of the current after all this rain.

The lovely thing about being out here away from Rio and the other bigger cities is the quiet once you leave the towns. Even if you can hear civilisation it's still peaceful. There are always stray dogs around, and the sound of someone starting up a moped somewhere. But the rest of the time, all you can hear is the crickets and the sounds of water dripping off the leaves. Occasionally you hear the squeak of a monkey and the whine of a fly, but the rest is calm. You really are out with nature, it's really lovely here. I think we'll feel that even more when everything has dried out a bit more.

The plan for tonight and tomorrow is; find a nice place to eat tonight for Liz's birthday meal, try our first Caipifruta!
Then tomorrow, if the weather is nice: hire some bikes, take a map and find some amazing waterfalls. There is supposed to be a place with big flat rocks that you can slide down and swim and use as shutes, which sounds like fun!

Sunshine soon please, apart from that everything is lovely...