OK, here is the continuation from last night!!

So after around a 2 hour bus journey from Niteroi we arrived in Petropolis. It is north of Rio, situated in the mountains. The journey up there was like a fairground ride - because it is in the mountains the road is really windey, not straight at all! The bus driver was overtaking on bends and speeding round corners that honestly we thought the bus would tip over... was quite funny. There were bars dotted along the roadside too, which we thought was strange because there wasnt anything else around that we could see - a mountainside covered in forest then a bar on the road! We were hoping that this wasnt yet where we were for the next 3 days!! There were also some really pretty waterfalls that fell next to the road, which really were great to see.

Around 10 minutes before we arrived at the bus station it got so dark and it was only around 3pm.... the heavens opened, the sky cracked and a huge thunderstorm errupted. I have not seen rain fall so hard in a long time and it was a HUGE change from the beach weather we were used to from being in Cabo Frio and Buzios. It was also a lot cooler, still warm (and miles warmer than the UK) but it was actually a welcome relief from the searing heat. So we got a taxi in this crazy thunderstorm and headed to our Hostel, looking forward to meeting other people as we hadnt met anyone in Cabo Frio. We arrived at the hostel (after the taxi driver stopped for directions!) and were greeted (in the rain) by a note on the door saying, in English, ´´gone to the supermarket, be around 30 minutes cause its the maids day off´´... so we had to wait for around 15 miuntes in the pouring rain for the owner to come back (the photo on rob´s Facebook profile is when we were standing waiting in the rain) - there were no other people, no staff, no travellers, no customers at the hostel!! That was the 2nd hostel we have stayed at so far where we were practically the only guests! The owner explained when we were checking in that the hostel was actually closed, but that she had forgotten to take the availability off the one website we used! The place was also more like a pousada because we ´werent allowed to use the kitchen´and there was a tv/coffee maker and microwave in our room. The main thing was though that it was clean. The owner disappeared the next day back to her other hostel in Rio, so we were left on our own with only the maid (who didnt speak English) for company in the mornings.... so again, 2nd time the owner has disappeared on us! We dont seem to have lots of luck with hostels at the moment!!

So anyway, the next day we got a bus into the town centre and got a map of everything touristy to do. So we visited Casa du Santos Dumont, Museau Imperial, Crystal Palace, the Cathedral and generally walked around the town. As the place was built into the mountains, some of the areas had really pretty surroundings of the mountain forests... trees and plants surrounding houses high off the road. We managed to do all the touristy stuff in one day so the 2nd day we were there we went into the town again to look for bargain basement tshirts... we had heard from another traveller that they were cheap there. We managed to find a few good bargains - Ruth got a pair of Havaianas and three tops for around 7 pounds in total!!! (No pound sign on Brazillian computers!) I got two tshirts for around 3 pounds in total, so we were pretty pleased with that. The next morning we got a taxi to the bus station for our next and current stop - Paraty in search of some sun.

After our longest bus journey yet (4 hours from Rio to Paraty... not long really in the grand scheme of things - Iguazu will be 22 hours!!) we arrived in Paraty, in the rain! Grey, warm and rainy was the order of the day....

... we will have to continue this another time as the time on the pc had ran out!!