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Thursday 18th April 2013 - Well as expected the bus journey took a little longer than we were advised. But regardless we didn't mind. We had booked the hostel misti chill and told them we will be there for 11pm so we were worried if anyone was going to be up at our arrival time - 1am. After a short taxi journey through the cobbled streets and over the humped bridge across the river we were happy to see plenty of people awake to greet us. The hostel is located right on the beach with a bar that belongs to them right in front actually on the beach so many were still up drinking around the BBQ. 2 kind men were there to check us in, including one funny looking short man who was very nice. Unfortunately there had been a bit of a c*** up.. Their Internet was down throughout the day so didn't update that their luxury rooms were fully booked as we had booked a private room so we could relax. They put us in an empty 6 bed dorm and we chose to sleep in the same single bed - not ideal compared to what we had opted for, but they were very apologetic. While we were purchasing some water for the night they suggested that they would discount the price and pay for our taxi. Whilst asleep I was bitten numerous times and began to notice that even the bites from Rio were starting to look really bad. I honestly at this stage look like I've got some crazy skin aids going on, and counted over 100 bites. I sent my aids ridden bitten arm picture to my dad, brother and Luke so they could feel my pain! Ha. Even though it was probably fairly obvious that we were late, we weren't advised what time breakfast was so unfortunately we missed it waking up at 10:15am. However when we came out the room a large man who owned the place sent further apologies and offered to sort us out with a free cocktail each and dinner on them for the evening which we were smiling about. We left our stuff in the deposit room and decided to head straight for the beach. I know what we're doing is considered travelling but I honestly feel like this is just one big holiday at the moment it's absolutely epic! The beach is something of a beaut! Like the kind of thing you'd expect if you whacked best beach into google. To our surprise it was a quiet beach but one thing that was straight away obvious is the amount of stray dogs there are. We counted 7 on the immediate beach to us and after starting to name them realised there were 20+ in the surrounding area. After a stroll up and down the beach we picked a spot and put our towels down and I got straight into the tranquil water. The views were amazing with thick jungle, a small island in front view where apparently the turtles chill and then a complex coastline. I spoke to Nath and arranged to FaceTime but first we had ordered a quick lunch for R$15 each. We both had the same - Fish with rice black lentil like beans and chips with a bit of salad. Was lovely eating this on the beach. Nath facetimed us and it was really good to see him, also he picked Preston our dog up and got him involved and I swear he recognises my face or voice because everytime I spoke I saw him turning his head. Apparently he was trying to go behind the computer to see where we were coming from and his face looked so jealous when one of the stray dogs called Barney came over as many of them did to see what this barking was coming from my phone. After a decent amount of time on the beach relaxing and listening to Albert Hammond Jr and beach fossils we left for a walk around the town to see what we had near us. This town is a beautiful historical town with many old buildings and small cobbled streets. The stones that made up the road were enormous and I understood why the dozens of horse and carriages we saw had rubber tractor wheels on. We took some photos of the streets and visited some of the shops before returning back to the hostel to enquire about this free meal etc. they advised us it would be a BBQ. It was usually R$18 each but they gave it us for free which was lovely. We were cheeky and took 3 kebab sticks each rammed with different meats - pork, beef and veg like peppers etc. we had watched the little Brazilian guy cut the meat up and throwing the bones and scraps that didn't go on the BBQ to the dogs. One dog, Leroy, even managed to steal some sausages whilst the man wasn't looking which was funny. they also gave us a free cocktail, a Caipirinha, the Brazilian national drink. This one was far better than any I've had since and any I've had before back at the lazy cow. Their so strong but so sweet. Even after eating loads of BBQ, lasagne, rice, beans etc I still felt drunk after a few more Skol beers. Inspired by our tipsy'ness we decided to go out. We went to the bar called Barril where we met a man learning English and he was practicing his English with us. We had plenty more Caipirinha which tasted even stronger than the last and a lot more beer and what felt like minutes later after talking hours had passed and we were pissed. They started to take all the outdoor tables and chairs inside until we were the last table standing outside. We paid our bill although I have no recollection of how much it came to and stumbled home. Nicki can't even remember getting home but I remember one of the wild dogs decided to attack nicki's handbag, so drunkenly I kicked it off her bag and we walked on. These two dogs - Oscar and Chewitt followed us the whole walk home even the part where we got immensely lost! I think I had a piss in a random alley and lost my barings on the way back. But we finally managed to get on a street I recognised and made it home fine, as far as I remember! I'd probably vouch that we should not get that drunk anywhere else on this trip at least it was in a quiet town. I was about to pay for it with the hangover from hell..
Friday 19th April 2013 - Today shouldn't be too hard to write about as I spent most the day in a twisted fight against being sick from a self inflicted Caipirinha hangover. Which I've discovered is one of the worse! Despite my terrible hangover I still made it up for breakfast this time, we needed to get back into the routine of eating our inclusive breakfast and then skipping lunch as this was working out cheapest. There was a toasty maker here so we were able to make Panini's and the fruit again was lush. With lovely fresh juice as long as the wasps hasn't fallen into it. While we ate our breakfast on the beach the waves were almost non existent and the sun was blistering hot already. We decided to stay on the beach again. Purely because I was too hungover to do much else. We were going to go to Tobóga but I really thought I would throw up on the bus so we instead booked another night at our hostel, being the weekend a little more expensive but we had the discount promised still. I think it was going to be R$199 but the final figure was R$317 with some water. We sun bathed and I went for a proper swim in the sea, my first without being bashed by waves like in Rio. After around 2pm or so the clouds seemed to keep coming out, we found each morning was boiling but the afternoon would go a bit like this. So instead we decided to walk the 30 mins up the hill and to Jabaquaba. Here is the location of their natural mud pools. We got straight in and experienced the weirdest feeling. It's like being in a plate of jelly and moving anywhere is impossible as you have nothing to push off. In seconds we were covered head to toe it was so funny. It smelt a little but that didn't stop us from throwing it at each other. I found a technique to slide on my belly like a seal and crawl away haha. Some girls walking took a photo of us eventually after she accidentally took a photo of her face and another family took a photo of us with their awkward looking son which was odd. When we had enough and realised we can't stay in the warm mud forever we walked back to the beach to get in the sea and wash this stuff off us. We stank our Aliitalia towels out a little, but they kept us warm for the walk back up the hill. On the way we saw these enormous crabs with red legs and a huge rock with a mans face carved into it and a beautiful butterfly on his last legs. It was really jungle like. When we got home we went to have a shower and our shower had broken, earlier I had had to take a cold shower but I thought this was because nicki had just use all the hot water but something else was up. We had the handyman take his tool box in and sort it while we chilled outside in the sun. He got the hot water working in about 20 mins by this point nicki had borrowed another shower. We got dressed up and headed out for some food. Underneath a lovely church called Rosario on the cobbled street was some tables for a nice looking restaurant and we opted for the crab starter to share. I had meat stroganoff and nicki had fish. Not very travellers like I know but we were treating ourself and it was lush. A few beers down and then the short walk back to the beach/hostel for a nice nights sleep.
Saturday 20th April 2013 - Nicki and I woke up nice and early and had a bit of a lie in together till around 9am after a good nights sleep. Because of how bad my bites had got I had started sleeping in my warm socks (which I later leave on the coach to São Paulo) and my long johns. So it was a night without any bites which was a positive. We had breakfast on the beach again, and I had to kill a few wasps that were ruining nicki's day haha bless she can't sit still when they are about and Scooby ate one for us. Because the weather was so hot again we decided to have a bit of a sunbathe again as the place is just so chilled and relaxed its addictive to want to chill on this beach. The large owner joked with me saying he wanted to go back to São Paulo or London and chill with the city folk again, which he said very sarcastically looking out at the calm sea and picture perfect beach and palm trees. He noticed my bites and said I should sleep under a net as they tend to prefer the men, which is frustrating for me but great for nicki who at this point only has 1-2 bad bites. Her sun burn was starting to get better although it had blistered fairly bad before. Again, once the sun went shy we decided to walk into town and find the bus station. We were told we may struggle to buy our bus tickets for tonight to get to São Paulo as the time we wanted was popular but we had no problems and the only thing was we had to sit across the walkway from each other rather than next to each other. We also found the bus to Penha as finally I was going to get to go to Tobóga to see the waterfalls you can slide down. We fell asleep on the bus there but when we got there to my surprise there was no real tourist hype at all. In face when we were unveiled to the beautiful waterfalls there weren't many people there at all. I straight away was greeted by a man from Rio who was visiting called Patrick. He asked if I would like to try sliding down which I snapped at the chance and followed him up the jungled hill barefooted. He helped me through the very skippy parts and showed me the safest route to slide down. It was so much fun. Like ridiculous amount! Although hitting the fresh water at the bottom was freezing. We walked to another smaller waterfall and then made our climb back up to the top past the slide to the next waterfall Tarzan. This had a wobbly wooden bridge from tree to tree leading to a bar where we bought the nicest looking but strongest cocktail ever. It was supposed to be kiwi flavour and you could see the pips but it was so alcoholic no flavour carried. After meeting a local boy fascinated by trying out his English and a small sausage dog we made our way back to the waterfall by this point it had got a lot busier. A woman who had pushed past us because we were going slow and taking photos fell over really badly immediately after. She was bandaged up and there was some blood and she was carried down the hill by 5 or so men. The crowds had gathered to watch the crazy locals from Paraty who were standing up and sliding down the waterfall on their feet stood up! I took some quality videos of them and this one lad in bright shorts helped me slide down again. I got addicted and must of gone down several times.. Enough to miss our bus! But things happen for a reason as to kill time we went on a walk where we found this distillery where they made, fermented and sold alcohol. We tried many different types and were taught how each were made until we came to the decision that we actually wanted to buy one of the stronger flavours. A 40% caramel one which came to R$16. We went back up to wait for the next bus which was at 5:40pm and we had just missed the 4:30pm one and the local with colourful shorts was waiting for the bus too. A taxi dropped a group from our hostel off and then asked if anyone wanted a lift to Paraty for R$3 each. This was translated by the guy in the shorts who decided to get the taxi with us as this was cheaper than the bus! The taxi crammed another couple in on route down and over filled his car probably to the annoyance of the bus driver but still we were home quicker. On the walk back we reconfirmed a couple of places that we fancied going for dinner as our coach journey wasn't till 11:30pm. We got dressed nicely again but suitable for the coach journey and heading to a restaurant on Lapa Av. We got bread to start and then a chicken curry to share which came with potatoes and rice. It was pretty nice food and very cheap but the man that served us was blunt and rude so we decided not to tip and I questioned the bill and got R$10 taken off for whatever reason I'm still unsure tbh. We made the journey back home and saw some locals dancing in the street with a large band playing music to them. It seemed a bit random because it was in a very quiet area of town. Dragging our bags to the bus station was a mission especially attempting to drag mine on my wheels through the cobbled street. Annoying when nicki re read the hostel freebies which included bus station transfers. Our bus was on time and we climbed on after twice misunderstanding the driver who wanted our telephone numbers not our date of birth haha. We're expected in São Paulo at 5:10am but let's see how accurate this is. Time to sleep on this bus which is actually very comfy although nicki isn't enjoying the fidget woman she is sat next to. Night.
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