Paraty to Floranopolis
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2010
1
126
136
Trip End
Dec 20, 2010
Sao Paulo, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
We head back down to the old town to check it out during the day. Its a small old town with cobblestone streets and whitewashed buildings. Pretty quaint and nice although we´ve seen a lot of colonial old towns here in South America.
We walk around the harbour for a bit before finding the only beach in town. Its actually not a bad little beach considering people told us the town didn´t really have a beach. Its really flat too so I get to go for a bit of a swim. Its the perfect beach for swimming because its really shallow and murky. It means I can swim out & around a boat knowing I can stand up if I get tired but also the murkiness means there is no visibility. If the water is clear I´m always seeing shark shapes in the corner of my eye so I´m thankfull for the murkiness!
Soon enough we need to head back to the hostel to grab our stuff. We give ourselves plenty of time and stop at a place for some fresh juice and a snack to eat. I order one of the juices off the board but after saying it 8 times the lady is still giving me blank stares. There are only 8 juices on offer and mine is the only one with yoghurt so you think she would click. In the end I´m able to tell her its the 6th one down the list. She finally gets it but its one of those fustrating situations where the locals don´t seem to use their brain to figure out what you want.
We then have more problems as it takes over 10 minutes for us to get our juices as one lady does all the orders one by one. After much hair pulling (not by me obviously) we finally get them and dash off to the bus stop. We make our bus in time so all is well.
On the way from Paraty to Sao Paulo we travel along the coast. Pretty much the whole coastline is dotted with perfect sandy white beaches. Some of them are developed with high rises while some of them are near deserted. All are flanked by the lush green forest that seems to be everywhere here. We stop a few times for refreshments which takes a while. Its annoying because the bus ride would be about an hour faster if they didn´t stop. I actually long for one of those Bolivian buses that don´t stop for 8 hours!
We finally arrive in Sao Paulo and as we drive through the city its size is immense. We see these areas where there are countless high rise apartment buildings. I think the word metropolis is the perfect word to describe it. We see a few of these areas that are filled with these apartment complexes and get a small understanding for how this city fits 18 millon people here.
At the bus terminal we buy our bus tickets for the overnight journey to Floranopolis. We have a few hours to kill and do some interneting. The girl behind the counter is extremely unfriendly and then we´re pretty sure she didn´t give us the full 30 minutes we paid for. We then walk around the bus terminal for half an hour but everything is really expensive. Nothing looks that good either for the price. In the end we settle for a fast food place called Mr. Sheiks just for the hell of it. Our meals come out pretty average, I doubt Mr Sheiks will go far as a franchise overseas. When its finally time for our bus we are actually pretty happy to be leaving Sao Paulo.
My plane to South America stopped at Sao Paulo on the way to Chile (via BA) so its strange to think 4 and a bit months later that I´m back here. Amazing to think of all the crazy experiences I´ve had along the way!
Comments
Good idea not to stay too long in Sao Paulo. I was there for a few days before I went to Rio, and it's just a crazy, congested city with some pretty sketchy cab drivers!
Really looking forward to hearing all your stories - not so long now.
Really enjoyed the pictures of Paraty and its beach - seems to be the ideal place other than it being expensive.