Parrrrraty

Last weekend, our entire group went to historic Paraty, Rio de Janiero. This was a huge port town during the colonial days, and after the Portuguese rerouted the gold road to go through Rio it was even a pirate town for awhile. By far my favorite town in Brazil so far, Paraty had a lot to offer in the ways of tourism.

We arrived Friday night and had a nice tour of the city center. The architecture is extremely colonial and there were many interesting pousadas and bars (a pousada is something between a hotel and a hostel). During the tour, it started to rain really hard and we ended up stuck in a bar tasting cachacas. Not the worst place to be Paraty's big thing is cachaca, so there were many local kinds to taste.

On Saturday we took a boat tour. There are dozens upon dozens of islands around Paraty and we visited three of them to swim and  soak in the sun.

There were a lot of fish under the boat..

My favorite day of the trip was Sunday. Besides visiting a cachaca factory in the country side (I bought some ginger flavored booze), we went to two different waterfalls. This was the first, and swimming in the cold river water was better than any beach or pool I've ever been to.

Villas do Paraty, our pousada, was pretty secluded. The rooms were seperate little apartments and gave you the feeling you were the only one there.

Paraty has a big canal that runs through it, and except for the boats it reminded me a lot of Indianapolis. 

I couldn't have had a better time in this town, and it's somewhere I really hope to get back to before I leave. Our program director, Ana Luiza, told us to look over our left shoulders and say goodbye to the city as we crossed the bridge out of town. She said this was a custom to ensure you would one day return to the beautiful city on the sea, and believe me: I looked over my shoulder.

Tchau.

Parks!

Sao Paulo is an enormous city. The biggest one in the southern hemisphere, in fact, and it can get pretty suffocating some days. Ok, MOST days. I love this place, but sometimes I need to get away from the crowd and take a few breaths. This is why I travel on the weekends and try as often as I can to get around to other cities, but for maintaining sanity during the week the parks are a perfect getaway. Which is why I get away, every day to Parque Agua Branca:

Incredible tranquility and some of the best looking trees and fauna I have ever seen. This park is where I run everyday and I have to say it makes exercise something to look forward to.

My favorite shot

There are at least a dozen or so buildings in Agua Branca that are used for various community functions. There's a museum and an aquarium, too.

This area is for horseback riding, and even though I was there in the evening when I usually see lesson s taking place I didn't see any tonight.

There are a few peacocks in the park, but the place is virtually ruled by the sheer amount of chickens that live there.

After my run/tour, its time to hit the weight room...

Primitive, but it beats the hell out of paying $70 a month for a gym membership.

 Right across from FGV on Avenida Paulista is Parque Trianon. This park is an excellent place to eat lunch between classes, and get away from the super busy Paulista.

So you can see why I visit at least one of these parks daily. There are plenty of others to see, and I'll make sure I bring my camera to the next one I visit.

Tchau!

Carnaval

So it's been a little over a month since Carnaval... and even longer since I posted on the blog. Things got really busy really fast and the pictures kept building up on my camera! Finally, I'm going to post a new entry  and back-date it to Carnival. Florianopolis, GO!

We had the cab driver stop at a ponto de vista (viewpoint) to get some shots of the lagoon on the way to the hotel. Florianopolis is an island characterized by beautiful beaches all around and lagoas, lake-like lagoons, on the interior.

Florianopolis is a great place to spend Carnaval during the day. The beaches were packed with beautiful people, and you could get cold coconuts or acai with honey and granola without ever leaving your chair.

At night, the real Carnaval started with parades and Samba, the most popular form of Brazilian music/dance.

I wish I had more pictures, but I opted not to bring my camera since other members of the group did. 

The beach our hotel was on, Praia Joaquina, was best known for the sandboarding that takes place on it's enormous dunes... Yes. I did.

A friend of mine got some really good action shots of us on the boards, but he hasn't uploaded them to the web yet. I promise to put them on here when he does. Overall, it was an incredible week and I'm excited to experience many more Carnavals in my lifetime.

Tchau!