Paraty 2

I haven't yet had a chance to upload more photos of Paraty as it's complicated and it takes time too. Don't really want to spend too much time on the internet even though it seems that I am. Paraty continues to be lovely even though the weather is not. Like I said, on the first day my roommate and I walked around the old colonial centre of the city which is full of little shops and cafes and brightly painted houses. My roommate was a girl called Rebeca from SP state and she reminded me a bit of Aline. Anyway it was nice to have company and to walk around chatting in portuguese. I like it when people give me a chance to practice instead of patronising me by talking to me in french or english. So talking to Rebeca was nice. I learnt some new words too, like poça for puddle. Sad I had to learn that one but oh well....I like it anyway...

Yesterday we went on the boat tour that is organised by the hostel. They have a lovely little boat painted blue white and yellow, and they take you out to the ocean. It was me, Rebeca, a Brazilian girl called Luciene and her american boyfriend Brendon (I know!!!! Beverly Hills???). It started out nice, we went to an island and had a chance to swim and snorkel a bit and chill out. Then the boat took us a bit further out to another location where we got another chance to swim and snorkel and there were many more fish to be seen there, and the water was clearer. We saw some sort of giant slug thing, orange with black spots sitting on the bottom of the sea. That was weird but interesting. Then we sailed off to find somewhere to eat, and as we did we could hear thunder in the distance and see a storm coming in. Scary! We stopped off for lunch on this tiny island and made the most of it to warm up because by then we were freezing. Lunch was huge and well worth the few extra R$. As we were sitting there it started raining and the storm came through. I was getting worried coz I hate the idea of being out in the sea whilst there is a storm, for some reason I have horror visions of huge waves and all that, like in the movies, and our boat was quite small. But luckily it went ahead of us so that by the time we got back on the boat it was only drizzling. Such a shame really that the weather is so crap because I can imagine that when it is sunny this place must be truly amazing..... When we got home we were all damp and disgusting and so I went out to buy some tea. HA HA! How english?! It's funny because this is when the english side of me stands out as when it is cold and wet or when I am ill I like to drink tea. Here when I ask for tea people look at me and say tea??? as in, really?? you want tea? I don't think they drink it that much here, they seem to prefer coffee.

The hostel is a great place for meeting people. So far I have met: 3 irish people on the first night, two guys and girl as well as a Brazilian and an American guy travelling together. They were all good company and we went out for some drinks together. There was also my roommate Rebecca of course, and then the Brazilian girl and her American boyfriend...On the second night we went out for drinks with two Brazilian sisters from the hostel and 3 Ecuadorian guys they had met. The Ecuadorians were mad and well in the mood for partying. It was fun! This morning I played chess with some Australian guys, oh and there were also some really nice french people too. Well, basically the guys were french/brazilian and there was only one of the guys' girlfriend who was only french and they were here with her, showing her around the country. It was nice chatting to them coz I got to speak french and portuguese, and for a french girl abroad she was nice enough. The french do have a bad reputation for that I suppose, as not being very friendly...Anyway yes this place is great for meeting people, that's for sure. They also have loads of dogs which sounds awful but is not so bad. The dogs are very friendly and look healthy (unlike the ones in the street) and it's nice to have some canine company.

I'm still not sure where to next, because the weather has been so terrible I'm not sure if I want to go and stay on an island when it's raining. The only thing is, there isn't really anywhere else to go in the vicinity that is interesting and I don't want to go to Rio yet. I would stay here but I think the hostel is full so I might just end up on the island anyway. I guess that's all for now as I have to free the computer and besides, enough has been said already. :-)