Paraty - RJ

Paraty - RJ

I had no idea where our hostel was in Paraty, so instead of looking for Wi-Fi, I thought 'this is the chance to test how good my language skills are'. It didn't go perfectly since I mixed Portuguese and Spanish, but in the end, I knew where we had to go. We walked through Paraty with our backpacks and saw a ton of clothing stores, and they were all very modern (not traditional). When we arrived at the hostel, we were greeted by the slobbery dog (the drooler).

The hostel was really cute. It was maintained with love and passion by its owner. Our room was like an attic, very beautiful but also very hot, around 60 degrees. We were basically roasted (rare-medium).

After checking in, we explored the old town. Of course, the women had to check out every store and memorize every item. At some point, we stopped at a tourist office and everyone was excited about horseback riding. I had a bad feeling about it, but Muriel persuaded me to join. That decision almost backfired on us. Afterward, we went to have dinner and stumbled upon a park where a group of guys were setting up their instruments. Within 30 minutes, the sleepy old town transformed into a party park. They put on a small samba concert with saxophones, trumpets, drums, rattles, and bongos. Everyone was dancing and having fun.

On the second day, we woke up relatively early and went to the tourist office where a man was waiting for us in a car to take us to the horse stable. On the way, I had a small accident because the Brazilian road builders had to construct gigantic speed bumps every 50 meters.

After a 20-minute drive and around 500 speed bumps, we arrived at the stable. We were greeted by a real cowboy, wearing leather pants, a cowboy hat, boots, and a metal star on his heel. He spoke like a Texas cowboy, but in Portuguese. I didn't understand a word, but I nodded and laughed. He asked who was the best rider, and we all pointed at Muriel. She then got the horse that got scared whenever a truck passed by. Well, I got stuck with a stubborn donkey, but I was okay with it. We started riding, and everything was going well until the first truck passed by and stopped to let us pass. After about 5 minutes, the next truck came. Like a brainless monkey, it drove past us without stopping, despite our hand signals. Muriel's horse got scared, took a step back, and stepped into a huge hole, causing her to fall backwards and get caught in barbed wire. The truck driver immediately jumped out of the truck to help her. Luckily, she only had a few scratches and a small flesh wound. It could have been worse. I treated her injuries via video call with her doctor dad.

In the evening, we went to the old town to have dinner. It was beautiful, with streets built by slaves in the 18th century.

We ate in a restaurant with a canal next to it. Just as luck would have it, there was a loud bang, and the entire restaurant (and the rest of the street) was plunged into darkness. Some idiot messed up the power supply. So, we romantically enjoyed our main course in complete darkness after about an hour (no idea how they managed to cook it). It was fitting for our day.

Now we're on a super comfortable tour bus on our way to São Paulo, where we will spend one night. Tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock, we will continue to Foz Iguaçu, home to the largest waterfalls in the world. We will be driving for about 15 hours and then we'll have 2 days there. After that, we'll return to São Paulo - Santos - São Paulo.

See you soon, Ernesto & Unlucky Bird of the Week, Muriel.