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Ola people!
Well, this is a sad moment as this is the last ever blog that we will write - we're not too gutted about it though as we will be home in 48 hours!! We had quite an interesting journey from Ilha Grande to Paraty. We had to carry our very heavy bags from the hostel to the boat along a very long beach. It felt like we were trekking through the desert and it took us about 20 minutes! Luckily, there was an icecream shop at the end of the desert so we stopped there to recover before getting the boat to Angra dos Reis on the mainland. It was a very peaceful boat journey back to the mainland especially as there was such a beautiful sunset. We arrived in Angra but had no idea where the bus station was so we flagged down the first bus and attempted to ask the driver if he went to the bus station - this was not straightforward as we were unable to say the Brazilian word for bus station! Anyway, we finally got there and found a bus to take to us to Paraty. It was quite a scary ride as the bus driver insisted on driving like a maniac on the very bumpy coastal roads. He also turned off all the lights whilst driving so we were sitting in darkness for 2 hours! We were greeted by a very strange man in Paraty who was speaking some indecipherable language - we ignored him at first as we thought he was just touting for business but it turned out he worked for the hostel we had booked into so he took us to the hostel. However, we were not convinced as it didnt look like a hostel and we were about to turn around and runaway as we thought he was a bit of a loon, especially as he was wearing a hat with his name written on it! It turned out it was actually the hostel so we did feel a bit bad for not trusting him but it was late and we were tired! In the evening, we just went out for a meal and after such a journey we had to have some wine despite our detox!
The weekend was spent relaxing on the beach. On Saturday we walked to Jabaquara beach and then on sunday we got a bus to a beach about half an hour away called Trinidade. We had a quiet night on Saturday and just cooked dinner and watched some DVDs and on Sunday we went out for a meal. Paraty is a really pretty little town as it has a historical town centre with lots of old buildings and very uneven cobbled streets. It was forecast rain for Monday so we decided to travel back to Rio as there is not much to do in Paraty when the sun is not shining!
This week we have been chilling out on Copacabana beach taking advantage of our last few days of warm weather (we have heard about the rain in Blighty!). On Wednesday we went up Sugarloaf mountain and saw the fanatastic views of Rio. Luckily, it wasn't cloudy so we managed to get a few good pictures and we were able to see the Christ Redeemer which was some consolation after our falied attempt last week. Last night we went out with a Brazilian couple who we very, very indirectly know through Nick's dad. They were very nice people and they took us to a non-touristy neighbourhood called Gavea where we had a nice pizza and lots of local beer called Chopp. Today, we are going on a Favela tour, where we will visit some of the poorer areas of the city so we can see another side of Rio. Tonight we plan to go out for a very nice meal in Ipanema to celebrate surviving five months of travelling!
Some random facts for you - we have stayed in 32 hostels and slept in 42 different beds over the past 145 days. We have been to 3 different continents and visited 8 countries (9 if you include seeing Paraguay from the boat!). We will of been on 9 aeroplanes by the time we get home and crossed 7 different time zones. We have been on so many long distance bus journeys that we cant actually remember how many, and we have driven 5 different vehicles over the past 5 months. We are glad we have our journals and this blogs as we are struggling to remember what we have actually been doing for the past 5 months! We have had a fantastic time and have done some pretty amazing things but we are unbelievably excited about coming home and seeing everyone, especially a certain two people!
See you very soon,
Lots of Love,
Jen and Becki xx xx xx xx xx
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