Beach of the Jaguar
Paraty Continued
10.02.2007 - 16.02.2007
37 °C
Hi all,
Here is a continuation of our stories from Paraty.....
Our first night in the beautiful beach town of Paraty we spent in a sweaty hot box hostel and had to pay quite a price for this 'luxury'. Throughout our adventures in South America out first question of any hostel is whether or not they have 'agua caliente' (hot water). When we arrived at this sweaty hot hostel all we wanted was a cold shower and ironically all they had was steaming hot water!!!!!
Finding this accommodation less than ideal, the following morning we were determined to find better accommodation at a good price. On the advice of a bumba we had met the night before we headed to jabawabarowarrawaba beach (ok we could not remember the name of the beach!!!). Very unsure of the correct pronounciation Kate set about asking the locals for directions. Much to Monique’s amusement she asked where we could find Jaguar beach (complete with a Spanish accent!). Despite the communication barrier we eventually got our point across and found our way (though we still couldn't tell you the name of the beach). It was a beautiful bay (the one in the previous picture) looking out to islands and surrounded by mountains and rainforest. Best of all it was away from the hustle and bustle of the town centre.
We found ourselves a cabin complete with 4 beds, our own bathroom and kitchen and aircon, best of all it was only a fraction more expensive than the hot box hostel. Unfortunately our first day in beach cabin paradise was rained out! We used this as an excuse to relax and eat at the hotels restaurant. As we enjoyed the meal, many beers and making friends with Canadians we were unaware of the attack being launched against us by Brazilian Invisible Death Mosquitos.
To our horror we awoke itching and scratching every part of our body. As the day progressed more and more bites reared their ugly heads, Monique ended up with literally 40 bites on each leg!!! All we can say is Thank God for yellow fever injections!
We decided to make this itchy day of doom our one and only shopping day in Paraty. We wondered around the circular streets of Paraty shopping, getting lost and being stared at continuously (to be fair it did look as if we had a bad dose of chicken pox). That day we also stumbled across Kate’s dream cafe - an ice-cream buffet!! You could make your own heart clogging, butt enhancing sundae from a selection of ice creams and toppings. You pay by the kilo as is a South American tradition. Yes you may not recognise us when we get back!!!
The next morning feeling like we needed a bit of physical activity we borrowed the hotels kayaks and went to explore the islands and the bay. The hotel staff had little confidence in our ability but Monique assured them (in fluent Portuguese!) that we were from Australia and were used to kayaking in 2m waves. It was amazing we kayaked around fro a couple of hours exploring the islands.
After lunch we realised we may have got a little sunburnt. After dinner the severity of the sunburn on our legs became apparent*. We were squealing in pain with every step we took. Kate had begun to feel the effects much earlier and was in a lot of pain. Monique told her to stop whinging as sunburn hurts and that’s life. Two hours later Monique was also whinging in pain!
*We wanted it stated for the record that we slathered on SPF 55 sunscreen but apparently the Brazilian sun is immune to sunscreen!
Awakening on Valentines Day (still in pain) with no boys to take us out, we decided to take a romantic boat cruise of the islands and beaches surrounding Paraty. It turned out to be more romantic than expected as we were the only ones on the cruise that day! It was like we chartered our own boat for 40 reais ($24) or at least that was our claim to fame for the day.
It turned out to be just what we needed. It was beautiful, heaps of fun and really relaxing. The beaches were stunning and we had lunch at a cute little island cafe, we even at traditional food and liked it! Our favourite part was snorkelling and diving with fish just of an island. The captain fed the fish while we swam with them. Using charades (our Portuguese is terrible!) we asked the captain about sharks and he assured us there were none. We have since found out that Brazilian oceans are full of sharks. Monique is very glad we did not know at the time as she is the designated shark bait (Kate is the street dog bait). Exhausted we had a little nap on the way back from our tour. Kate briefly awoke and realised that we were ALL asleep. Our driver was apparently a great multi-tasker, driving the boat and napping whilst a fag was alight in his mouth!! We returned to our cabin and had homemade pizza and Maracuya (passion fruit) cocktails.
Our last day in Paraty was supposed to be a relaxing and organising day. However our plans were disrupted when the hotel decided to paint the cabins for Carnaval. The day turned out to be a comedy of errors as the painters hung through our windows smoking and watching our TV and getting headaches from the paint fumes. Kate approached the hotel staff, their solution (in true South American style) was to provide us with incense to mask the smell. However this did not get rid of the fumes and by the end of the day Monique swore they had mercury poisoning (an internet self diagnosis).
The next day rested and relaxed we jumped on a bus to head to Rio for the madness of Carnaval.
xxooxx
Monique and Kate
Posted by Kate-Mon 24.02.2007 19:20 Archived in Brazil Comments (0)
