Monday, June 6, 2011

decadence

rio de janeiro, brazil to paraty, brazil
paraty from the bay
we got the bus first thing in the morning and headed south. the ride was beautiful, a landscape of green rolling hills and blue sea.
immediately after we left rio i began to like the country a little better.
green grows everywhere
portugese would prove to be the bane of my brazil existence, but when i was able to communicate a little, i was happy as a clam - a steamed clam. it was hot and very humid. i love the heat, but humidity makes me a whingy wilted mess. v put up with me admirably and i did my best to not act like a rotten 4 yr old throwing a tantrum.

the old mission
colonial quaintness
cake cart
paraty is a nice little tourist trap of a town. old colonial buildings have been restored and converted into stores and restaurants aimed at people passing through. we arrived late in the afternoon, settled into our hostel and went to explore the town. after walking along the water we grabbed a nice dinner, topped it with lovely gelato (too bad that we discovered the ingenious cake carts after dessert),
then headed to an adult themed puppet show that was quite amazing, the teatro espaço. all in all, a great day.

the banzai
the following morning, we bought tickets for a schooner cruise that would go to some secluded beaches and lagoons in the bay. this was one of the most awesome days ever.



i swam here!
it felt like the height of luxurious decadence. lazing on the deck of a beautiful boat, occasionally jumping off the side to swim a bit in
 absolutely glorious water. i could have done this for days. the only down side was any bit of my skin that came in contact with the surface of the water, no matter how much sunscreen was worn, burned to a nice crisp (a handy trick i learned in my early days in los angeles forestalled the unhappiness that usually accompanies sunburns - in the evening, after the burn has finished setting in, apply copious amounts of a dense skin cream, repeat every few minutes until the skin stays moist to the touch...in the morning you have a nice tan instead of an evil burn. this doesn’t do anything to lessen the chances of future melanoma though, so wear your sunscreen!).
they filmed the twilight honeymoon somewhere out here

lethal liquid - caipirinha
v got silly drunk on one caipirinha (these drinks are delightful and go down nice and smooth then, twenty minutes later, sucker punch you),
while i stuck to my addiction, coca cola (i had planned to drink a little, but the only other alcohol they had was tequila, and i just can’t drink something that tastes like an unpleasant shade of brown).

we were treated to an impromptu concert by some fellow guests who brought along a guitar and lovely voices. they sang songs in english that they didn’t know all the words to, so i occasionally piped in and helped them along.

back on land we went and had another nice dinner before going to the hostel to grab our bags and head for the bus station to catch the overnight to sao paulo.

1 comment:

  1. Lovin reading your blog Lecia. The photos are awesome too.

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