Bye-bye Sao Paulo!
14 August:
Our 9th wedding anniversary today. We didn´t end up doing very much as the day was overcast and wet, and didn´t fine up much as the day progressed. We wandered around a nearby shopping centre, and watched an Airedale Terrier getting his hair done at the pet shop across from Starbucks - kept us amused for half an hour, and the dog was certainly enjoying it! Kept walking around the block, then back to the hotel to do some internetting and general relaxing (yay for cable tv). Had dinner at a nice cafe near the hotel, huge meals that couldn´t be finished, so much food goes to waste here because the portions are just so enormous. Bought ourselves a Tom Jobim CD, seems to be one of his greatest hits compilations so hopefully it will be OK.
15 August:
Travel day today. After checking out of the hotel, we caught the metro to the Tiete bus station for our 12.15pm bus to Paraty - the metro is so easy to use and fairly cheap. The bus ride to Paraty was one of our better ones - very scenic, the bus driver was friendly (and careful!) and we got to watch ´Chicken Run´when we weren´t watching the scenery. Arrived at our hotel in Paraty about 7pm and walked into town for dinner. Found out that there is a ´pinga´festival on this weekend - pinga is the local cane liquor - and Paraty is one of the main centres. There was music playing in the town square, so we settled down at a drink stall and worked our way through their menu - will go back tomorrow night to try the ones we missed out on!
