Paraty

We are enjoying Paraty very much. Yesterday we took a trip on a schooner out into the bay beyond the town. There are lots of small islands with beaches accessible only by boat. It was a perfect day - the sun shone, the water was sparkling blue-green, we shared the huge boat with just a few other people, there was relaxing Brazilian background music ... We stopped now and again for swimming and snorkelling off the boat, and to visit a few quiet beaches. All very relaxing and low-key. The five hours seemed to pass very quickly.

With time to spare on our return, we jumped on to a local bus and headed out to Trindad where there are several more ocean beaches. The bus trip was pretty wild (in fact more of an adrenalin rush than our recent hang-gliding in Rio) as the driver careered the large bus around blind corners at high speed. Then only consolation was that the bus was bigger than anything coming the other way. We were glad to reach the relative tranquility of the Trindad beaches and we hiked around them to a natural swimming hole which was protected from the crashing waves elsewhere. Back to Paraty before the rain caught up with us. It seems to rain torrentially for one or two hours every night in Paraty and the cobblestone streets flood severely. But everything dries out by morning and the sun appears again.

On Wednesday, our last day in Paraty, we rented bikes and cycled up behind the town. It was a hard slog uphill in the heat through a few small villages. We ended up at a large waterfall known in Brazilan as the "slide" where we took the opportunity to cool off in the water. And to see if the slide lived up to its name (it did). On the return journey, we detoured onto a dirt road where we really put our mountain bikes to the test. We reached another waterfall where we spent time again cooling down before the final stretch back to town. Again, we arrived ahead of the evening rain and happy with our experience in Paraty. Tonight, we begin our long series of journeys via Sao Paolo to reach Nairobi on Friday night. That is the next time we'll see a bed.

Simon