Paraty

Today is Monday and we´re in Paraty or Parati depending on which map/sign etc you´re looking at... Its on the coast towards the Argentina border but its a tiny little town and is soooo completely different from Rio! All the buildings here are white with different coloured doors and windows and just like Venice the roads (which are more like cobbled streets) get flooded with water. We got in at sunset last night after a 4 hour drive from Rio. The drivers here in Brazil are just as crazy as the ones in Egypt and Turkey and swerve between the lanes and fang it round the corners like a rally driver even when hauling a trailer full of tourists luggage...

Our activity today was a boatride around the islands here and we had a chance to snorkle at one of the stops. Its not as great as say the Whitsundays but we still got to see a starfish and a sea urchin in amongst the all the fish - even if there was only two or three different types... We also stopped at Monkey Island but we only saw a pretty big blue butterfly, a big brown dog and something that looked like a ferret/beaver/otter thing...

Tomorrow we are off to Sao Paolo via bus so we can fly on to Iguaçu Falls... Can´t wait for that one - I FINALLY get to go in a helicopter!!! YAY!!!

My tandem hang glide flight on Friday was great but a little short coz there was not enough wind to keep us up... Turns out the guy who drove us up the hill knows the guys at Airborne and Moyes so we had a good chat!! It can really be a small world sometimes...