A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday was that the free internet at the hostel is actually free WIFI ONLY. And there is a difference, I thought since they had said free internet and given us logon and passwords that the computors were for our use. My assumption was quickly corrected when I used their computor to check something and the staff member said I owed money for it. I ended up not paying the small bill but in case it comes up for you, clarify if the "free" service in WIFI or the internet on their computors.
In addition, yesterday after we hiked to the first waterfall, our original plan was to hike the Gold Trail. This is the trail that the Brazilians used in the 1500s to travel to Sao Paulo and Rio De Geneiro to find and trage gold. It is a heritage site according to UNESCO and apparently a very popular hike with the tourists according to a pamphlet we came accross. When we got to the base of the hike we saw a sign mainly in Portugese that had a small translation saying we could only hike this trail with an authorized guide and it was prohibited to continue on our own. Being the rebels we are, we took a local teenagers advice and head out on the hike anyway. About ten minutes in, the adult half of our minds took over and we turned around.
Today we woke up early and walked to the bus station to buy our tickets back to Rio with a company called Costa Verde. They have quite luxorious busses and the prices of travel are a bit steeper with them. We paid for our three nights at our hostel but we were .95 cents short of the bill and they let it slide. When we exchanged our US funds over to Brazilian Reals the only Cabrio (exchange place) in the city was in the historic center of Paraty, also known as rip off capital of the world. The woman behind the counter even sounded appologetic when she told us how much of our money she would keep in exchange for converting our currencies. Thinking about it now however, it boils my blood a bit that the poor exchange rate happens to be nearly identical to the one we have been getting from our bank in Canada through the ATM machines. Thanks a lot HSBC.
Another small but very significant part of our travel in Brazil is in relation with our sense of smell. Throughout every area we have visited, we are uncomfortable witnesses to ridculous odours coming from mystery sources. As we are walking down a seemingly clean street, we are hit with the stench of lovely things like garbage, body odour, fish, sewage, poop and mystery soup. Once in a while the smell will be of flowers or ocean or perfume but the incidences of this are fewer and farther between than that of the prior.
At 11am we took part in a boat cruise that floated us t four different islands around Paraty. There were dozens of boats taking eager tourists to see the beautiful scenery only accessable through water. We were on a vessel with eight other people and staff and we spent the day getting more sun, watching turtles swim, splashing around in the water during the stops and viewing the little islands. It was a relaxing and nice day after the strenuous one we lived through yesterday.
Yesterday I mentioned that we were heading out to a beach party after I had written my blog entry. Here's what actually happened: we dragged our butts out of the hostel, down the street about three minutes, paused for one, continued for one and finally admitted that niether of us wanted to (nor was able to) go to this party. We returned to the hostel and passed out instead.
Tonight we caught the 17:20 bus back to Rio and it was quite dark when we got back to Rodovario (the main bus station here). We had to take out more money from the ATM to pay for another local bus to get to our new hostel call Oceans Inn Hostel in Leblon. The only problem was that when we got off the bus we had no idea where we were, we had all our luggage and it was 9:30pm. We walked where our obviously foolish sense of direction told us to go (about one hour the opposite way). So what should have been a 25 minute bus ride turned into a 25 minute bus ride and two hour walk in the middle of the night through what some of the locals call the slums of Rio. At this point however, I am glad this hostel truly exists and they had in fact recieved our reservations and deposit. It is here that I end my tail for tonight so I can catch some zzz's and beachbum it some more tomorrow.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
In addition, yesterday after we hiked to the first waterfall, our original plan was to hike the Gold Trail. This is the trail that the Brazilians used in the 1500s to travel to Sao Paulo and Rio De Geneiro to find and trage gold. It is a heritage site according to UNESCO and apparently a very popular hike with the tourists according to a pamphlet we came accross. When we got to the base of the hike we saw a sign mainly in Portugese that had a small translation saying we could only hike this trail with an authorized guide and it was prohibited to continue on our own. Being the rebels we are, we took a local teenagers advice and head out on the hike anyway. About ten minutes in, the adult half of our minds took over and we turned around.
Today we woke up early and walked to the bus station to buy our tickets back to Rio with a company called Costa Verde. They have quite luxorious busses and the prices of travel are a bit steeper with them. We paid for our three nights at our hostel but we were .95 cents short of the bill and they let it slide. When we exchanged our US funds over to Brazilian Reals the only Cabrio (exchange place) in the city was in the historic center of Paraty, also known as rip off capital of the world. The woman behind the counter even sounded appologetic when she told us how much of our money she would keep in exchange for converting our currencies. Thinking about it now however, it boils my blood a bit that the poor exchange rate happens to be nearly identical to the one we have been getting from our bank in Canada through the ATM machines. Thanks a lot HSBC.
Another small but very significant part of our travel in Brazil is in relation with our sense of smell. Throughout every area we have visited, we are uncomfortable witnesses to ridculous odours coming from mystery sources. As we are walking down a seemingly clean street, we are hit with the stench of lovely things like garbage, body odour, fish, sewage, poop and mystery soup. Once in a while the smell will be of flowers or ocean or perfume but the incidences of this are fewer and farther between than that of the prior.
At 11am we took part in a boat cruise that floated us t four different islands around Paraty. There were dozens of boats taking eager tourists to see the beautiful scenery only accessable through water. We were on a vessel with eight other people and staff and we spent the day getting more sun, watching turtles swim, splashing around in the water during the stops and viewing the little islands. It was a relaxing and nice day after the strenuous one we lived through yesterday.
Yesterday I mentioned that we were heading out to a beach party after I had written my blog entry. Here's what actually happened: we dragged our butts out of the hostel, down the street about three minutes, paused for one, continued for one and finally admitted that niether of us wanted to (nor was able to) go to this party. We returned to the hostel and passed out instead.
Tonight we caught the 17:20 bus back to Rio and it was quite dark when we got back to Rodovario (the main bus station here). We had to take out more money from the ATM to pay for another local bus to get to our new hostel call Oceans Inn Hostel in Leblon. The only problem was that when we got off the bus we had no idea where we were, we had all our luggage and it was 9:30pm. We walked where our obviously foolish sense of direction told us to go (about one hour the opposite way). So what should have been a 25 minute bus ride turned into a 25 minute bus ride and two hour walk in the middle of the night through what some of the locals call the slums of Rio. At this point however, I am glad this hostel truly exists and they had in fact recieved our reservations and deposit. It is here that I end my tail for tonight so I can catch some zzz's and beachbum it some more tomorrow.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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