"Planes" to Brazil

So it has been forever since I last blogged! I have been so busy and just have not had time to sit down.So better late than never, here are the last two weeks summarised in a few blog posts!

I left Cochabamba on the 29th June, it was incredibly sad to leave my host family and all the great friends I had met, and of course to leave the city. I ended up on the same flight as one of the other volunteers to Asuncion, so that wasted away the time in Cochabamba airport. Again all my flights with Tam were top-notch, I even had 2 meals on the 5 hour flight from Asuncion to Rio, and they were veggie!

I spent the night in Asuncion airport once more as my flight to Rio was super early in the morning, so there was no point in leaving. As I was leaving the Cochabamba airport, Paraguay were playing Japan and it had gone into extra time, so I was a bit weary getting into Asuncion, thinking that the airport would be shrouded in misery had they lost! However, once I got off the plane I was greeted by a sea of happy Paraguayans, literally everyone in the airport, workers included, was wearing their Paraguay shirts.

There was less people sleeping in the airport this time around, infact it was just me and one other guy- Davide, a Colombian guy, who was on the same flight as me in the morning, we chatted for a bit, and then I slept for maybe an hour.When I first got to the airport I was approached by a policeman, I thought he was going to tell me I couldn´t stay in the airport, but in fact he was asking if I was ok, and he even offered me juice! I saw him again in the morning, and he asked me if I had slept, and kept checking on me, it was nice to see such kindness!

When I woke up from my brief nap, I was greeted by the sight of lots of European school kids who were apparently going home after an exchange trip. They were there with their entire host familys, and were extremely noisy. It was 3am and they were singing (horrifically) I might add and at the top of their voices, needless to say I did not get any more sleep. Though I did sleep on the plane to Brazil.

I arrived in Rio at lunchtime, after waiting a bit for my arrival transfer (which never turned up) I jumped in a taxi and headed to my hostel. The traffic was horrific and it took quite a long time to get there, but I did get to take in the sights of Rio including Copacabana, Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer. I checked into the hotel and wandered round the streets of Rio. It is a great city, and one I wish I had had more time in, I will definitely come back, it is the perfect mix of beach and city! There are smoothie and frozen yoghurt bars everywhere, which is definitely a plus. The citizens of Rio are extremely health conscious, there are people running everywhere, and all along Copacabana beach there are just these random exercise stations, were people stop and do pull ups, rather amusing! I spent the evening wandering around a little night market, and in the Lapa district, where there is good night life, we just chilled in a bar, it was nice to see some of the city by night.

In the morning we chilled on Copacabana beach, although it was hard to relax when you are constantly being harrassed by sellers on the beach, we tried to pretend we were asleep, but it didn´t really work! We left Rio around lunch time and headed south in a bus along the coast.

We arrived in Angra Dos Rios and caught a boat to the beautiful island of Ilha Grande. As soon as you arrive you are hit by the feel of island life, everything is so chilled and peaceful. We stayed in a really lovely hostel. In Brazil a lot of the food places serve dinner by the kilo, which means you pick your food, and you pay for however much you have, it´s a good idea really, as then you can pick exactly what you want.

Every weekend in July in Brazil is a party, and Ilha Grande had a particularly good street party, with lots of food and lots of alcohol flowing. We were constantly amused by the antics of the local town drunk who we christened Fabio! The drink of choice are Caprinhas, which are just alcohol, sugar (and a lot of it!) and lime, they are extremely sweet, which makes them pretty lethal!

We went for a really long hike to a beautiful beach on the other side of the island. It was a 2 and a half hour hike and a pretty intense one at that, lots of hills and in pretty humid conditions, but the beach was more than rewarding and we saw a tiny little monkey along the way. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Brazil were winning their quarter final match at the time we left for the hike but we did not know the final score, until somebody told us that they had actually lost, everyone was shocked. Brazil is crazy for football. They even had a fan fest arena set up on Copacabana beach where thousands of people watched all the matches, so it was so sad for them and us that they had gone out, this was the beginning of our curse on the South American teams. However, it did not dampen the party atmosphere, and the street party festivities continued long into the night.

After Ilha Grande we moved back onto the mainland and down further south to the colonial town of Paraty. It is a Unesco world heritage site, and their are plenty of colonial buildings scattered around the town, it also had a couple of really nice beaches. The town floods every single morning when the tide comes in, which is pretty crazy, we didn´t get to see it happen though, as it took place super early in the morning.

I went kayaking in Paraty, it was a really beautiful trip, out into the sea, kayaking all around the little islands, we even saw turtles (which I at first thought was a frog, as only its little head was sticking out of the sea!). We went to a tiny little island and had a look around, there were some rocks to jump in off, so we did so, unfortunately the girl I was with slipped and gashed her arm on the rocks, it was a pretty nasty cut so we had to paddle back to shore and take her to the hospital. It was my first experience of a South American hospital and it was better than I expected, in fact she was seen to so quickly and there was little administrative bullshit, it was clean and after getting three stitches, we headed back to our hostel.

Paraty was the first place I saw rain, and in fact it wasn´t really proper rain, for over two months, I thought I would of missed it more, but actually after you see it, you realize that its simply depressing!

I spent most of the next day wandering around the town, looking in the really nice shops, it seemed like quite an affluent town! and then I walked to the site of the former fort, there was little to see there, but it was a nice hike, and gave a great view of the sea, I also saw more turtles!

I then prepared myself for the 24 hour bus ride to Iguazu falls, which is where I will leave this installment.