Paraty, Brazil, South America

I got up this morning, and even though I had a slight hangover headache, I had a huge smile on my face. The New England Patriots are the world champions again! That seemed to make the pain go away pretty quickly. I got my stuff packed up and called a taxi to pick me up and bring me to the bus terminal. I knew the company I had to go to for the trip to Paraty. Unfortunately, even though I got to the Reunida bus window 45 minutes before the bus was meant to leave, it was already sold out. They told me that I had to go with another company to a town called Ubatuba, and then switch onto a bus for Paraty.

I bought my ticket for Ubatuba and then had a look around the bus terminal to see if I could find Graeme and Hillary. They were supposed to meet me there at 11:30am for the 12:15pm bus, but they never showed up. I got the bus over to Ubatuba, and then had to walk about six blocks to find the other bus terminal where I then got on a bus for Paraty. It was about a four hour ride over to Ubatuba, and then only about an hour and a half to get to Paraty. In comparison to a lot of my other bus journeys, this was a nice short jaunt.

When I got into Paraty I had to get a taxi over to my hotel, which is on a beach outside of the main town called Jabaquara. I checked on my maps and saw that it’s only about 2km from the bus terminal to the hotel, but the taxi cost me R$30 ($12). I wasn’t happy with that, but I guess all the taxis in Paraty are outrageously expensive. Whatever. My taxi finally got me over to Hotel Estacao do Sol, and I am really impressed with this place. I have a nice big room with A/C and a private bathroom, all for less than $40 a night. The only bad thing is that the internet isn’t working in the room, but the guy said they are trying to fix it tonight.

I went out to a restaurant recommended by the guy at the front desk for dinner. It is called Seria and they specialize in pizza. I had a pizza that was half Mexican Calibresa and half broccoli and garlic, which was delicious! I was only able to eat half of the pizza though, so I brought the rest of it back to my room to have tomorrow. I have a little fridge in my room, and it’s a good thing too because the garlic on that broccoli pizza stinks!!

I checked out Jabaquara beach, which is just across the street from my hotel, and it is beautiful. The weather isn’t the best today, it’s pretty cloudy. It is still a beautiful beach though. I’m hoping that tomorrow the weather will be a bit nicer and I’ll be able to see the beach in a different light. There don’t appear to be many people staying in this pousada tonight, so it’s been pretty quiet around here. Maybe tomorrow I’ll run into more travelers in the main town of Paraty.