Sun!!!!

Finally we have been blessed with sun here in Paraty. It has been a good week if not for the fact that I have been stuck in terrible rainy weather. I woke up this morning at 6.30 coz of some bloody mosquito biting me, and as I went on the balcony to go and apply repellent, I saw that it was going to be an amazing sunny day! When I eventually got up for good the weather was still nice and so it was a question of what to do on such a lovely day. My first thought was of going round the historic centre and taking some pictures of it in the sun as it looks so much prettier. Then I was thinking of just heading to the local beach and chilling there. But the Australian boys that I had met at the hostel said they were thinking of going to Trinidade. It is a beach near here but a bit more removed in a beautiful location. The beach is bigger, the water purer, and the location a bit calmer I suppose. So I decided to hop on the bandwagon and make the most of it, otherwise I knew I would regret not going. So I followed the Aussies and we went to get the local bus to Trinidade. I love getting the bus with the locals because then it feels like you truly are living the Brazilian adventure, doing things the way they would and just bumping along with everyone else. The bus was crammed full of people and so we had to stand, and it was just one big mess of people with their bags and shopping and surfboards and kids....Then we started driving Brazilian style towards Trinidade. When we finally approached the last stretch of road before Trinidade, then it became a real adventure. It was a tiny little country road, very hilly with sharp turns, but not very broad. The bus went careering up and down it, swinging round the bends with crazy precision, bouncing down the hills and struggling up them. It was almost like being on a funfair ride! Trinidade is indeed beautiful. The setting is stunning, a large-ish beach set between jutting mountains that come all the way down to the ocean. Kind of like Annecy if you can imagine that in ocean jungle sized proportions. The waves were crashing in, some of them quite high, and there were loads of surfer dudes riding the waves. It was lovely and the sun was out, perfect basically! We walked along the beach until we found a convenient spot and then jumped in. The Aussies were well used to swimming with and in the waves but I wasn't so I quickly resorted to standing on the edge getting wet by the big waves but not drowning! Later in the afternoon I went for a walk further along the beach and climbed up on to the rocks. The sound of the ocean is so peaceful, and it is in moments like those that I can totally imagine living by the sea. I also felt weirdly drawn to the sea, almost as if I was ready to throw myself into it and let it do whatever it wanted. Sounds dramatic I know, but it is just this overwhelming feeling when you sit there alone, listening and watching the sea.

All in all the day in Trinidade was a success, although the Aussies only got back JUST in time to catch their bus to Rio, and had to make a mad dash from here to the station and use me as translator to stall the bus driver! The Aussies were a really nice bunch. 5 guys travelling together, all really friendly and easy to get on with. The first night we went out to dinner together and I invited my roommate too because she was all alone. New roommate this time, also a Brazilian girl but called Adriana. So we all went out for dinner and it was hilarious because it revolved around them trying to talk to her in English, her looking confused, me translating and their trying to learn portuguese words. They particularly loved the footcheebaaall! ha ha! But it was a good evening and one of the Aussies, Matthew, made a particular effort in trying to speak to Adriana in a mixture of english, spanish and portuguese! The next day was vaguely sunny so I headed to the beach to just chill for a bit and ended up running into the Aussies again so when it started raining (as usual) we headed for lunch together. In the evening, we all went out for dinner again except this time with Adriana and also 3 Japanese girls who were in the hostel. In fact, they were all three Brazilian Paulistas except of Japanese descent. That was also a fun evening as two of them spoke english so it made it a bit easier. All in all the company the past few days has been great. There has been lots of comings and goings here in the hostel as it is really popular or at least well located and so there is a constant flow of travellers.

In the end I had decided to cancel my trip to Ilha Grande as the hostel was just not replying to me and when I phoned them to ask if there were vacancies they said there were none. Then this morning I got an email from them asking whether or not I was coming: how annoying! Well in any case I figured that staying in Paraty would be better than being homeless on an island of all places, and with bad weather too, so I asked if I could extend my stay here and they said yes. Turns out though, I may be going to Ilha Grande after all tomorrow. I was supposed to be meeting my friend Magia out in Angra dos Reis (village down the road) on the 27th but she wrote to me to say they were in Ilha Grande as of tomorrow. In which case, I may off to join them and therefore still get to see the island, and not spend Christmas alone, hurray!!! Will write more when I remember what I wanted to say. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all, ho ho ho! May you eat lots of turkey and get lots of lovely pressies!