Brazil - Paraty and Iguassu Falls

We got a bus to Paraty, which is a somewhere south of Rio (on the way to Iguassu). Paraty was a very quaint little town, with cobbled streets and old colonnial styled buildings with different coloured windows and doors (red, blue, yellow etc).

Now when I say cobbled streets, dont think Covent Garden, as these cobbles are much larger and you actually take your life into your own hands when you choose to walk down the street. Also unlike Covent Garden there was no option of walking along the side where there are no cobbles...it was cobbled all over. I was amused to see a man trying to cycle down one of the roads...I'm sure he's sorry for trying now lol.

So we spent 2 pretty quiet days in Paraty. After the BFH in Ilha Grande we werent keen for any more boat trips, and thought it would be better on the budget if we avoided the kayaking and horse riding trips offered, so we caught a local bus to the beach, about 45 mins away and what an adventure that turned out to be.

We managed to get 2 seats right at the back of the bus on the left, and were initially rather pleased with ourselves, thinking that 45 mins would be a long time to stand up. however the bus driver was a lunatic, speeding up everytime there was a dip in the road, so that all the passengers are thrown up in the air. At one point there was a sheer drop on the left handside down to the sea, and we hit a bump at the back of the bus swung out over the drop -arrggh! (and yes that was the bit we were sitting in). Thankfully the weight of the rest of the bus and our forward momentum managed to save us! Anyway the beach was very pretty.

However I (Kirsty) managed to pick up a cold somewhere along the way, so was taking flucaps on the beach and blowing my nose! Next day went for a walk around the historical quarter of Paraty which had some lovely little quirky shops. Then seemed to leave Paraty almost as quickly as we'd arrived, as we got a tourist bus to drop us at Sau Paulo bus station.

Now Sau Paulo bus station itself deserves a mention, as it is enormous and is more like an airport than a bus station. We got there early and went to the toilets to change in to some warmer gear, as the tour leader told us that the nightbuses feel like theyve come from Antartica. Oh and we had to pay 1.25 RS to use the toilets hmph!

So got an Upper Crust roll (yes the very same, relived to finally recognise the name of a food vendor) and waited for the bus to leave. The buses actually had platform numbers for departures (like a train station)so was relatively easy to find, and they put a sticker on your bag and give you the number, so the people getting on and off cant knick your bag.

So we got a 15 hours night bus to Iguassu (the Brazil side). The nightbus wasnt too bad, as they had a toilet at the back and supplied some water, and seats did recline a bit. However it wasnt freezing as was promised so were a bit warm in the many layers lol. Also the little personal reading lights above our heads were rubbish, so couldnt read anything for the duration, so just listening to ipods and got an early night. Oh and steve managed to read his Ereader (strike one for the old fashioned book).

So we arrived in Iguassu and checked in to our hotel (free wifi again hooray). Then rather than having a rest after the long bus trip, we had 2 hours to get showered and meet up again, so that we could get the bus out and see the brazilian side of the falls.

It only took about 2 hours to see the Brazilian side of the falls, as it is not as built up as the argentinian side in terms of walkways / lunch spots etc...but it was a beautiful walk along the edge of the falls and had a short walkway that took you out to the middle of the river.

Yesterday we left at 08h30 and got a tourist bus over to the Argentinian side (yes we got stamps). There were lots of different walkways on that side, and you got a real sense of how enormous the river and waterfalls are. We also took a speedboat up to the falls, so we were pretty drenched, although we were in our ponchos - great fun. We noticed a couple of turtles swimming around (and loads of fish) as we were going over the walkways on the way to see the devils mouth - which was a pretty spectucular sight - basically a whole LOT of water going over the edge into a big hole...and theyve built walkways right up to it so you can see the water going over the side- very cool.

Tonight we are taking a nightbus to Uruguay...so more about that later.

Take care,
Kirst and Steve x