Paraty for Nicky´s 30th

After all the mayhem of Rio, we headed south for a tranquil time by the sea for Nicky´s birthday.

Paraty is a quaint little fishing village that has got stuck in time after the gold boom ended and it had no proper roads leading to it until about 50 years ago. The architecture is all colonial Portuguese and the streets are designed to flood during heavy rain or high tides and clean the rubbish away. The are no cars allowed in the old town, just horse and carts. We stayed in a lovely guesthouse, courtesy of Nic´s mum Anne, where little monkeys would steel bread from us in the morning.

We hired a clapped out 70´s VW Beatle (courtesy of my mum Andro) and headed up into the jungle, and bounced along dirt tracks to find waterfalls.

We went to 3 different ones, one had an amazing series of falls and pools of different sizes, another spilled out over a large rock which you could use as a massive slide and the last had a rope swing that you could play at being Tarzan on.

The local kids were amazing on the rock, speeding around and doing jumps.

I managed about 3 seconds before I fell on my arse. Not quite so graceful but good fun all the same, plus the locals enjoyed laughing at the gringo

I was a little more successful as Tarzan.

Nic´s favourite was this place, with some amazing rocks formations.

We had lunch at a beautiful little river side restaurant, appropriately called Bonita Brazil, and ate far too much seafood and chicken wings. Nic enjoyed a couple of birthday caiprinhas too

When we got back we had one of the best meals we´ve had whilst we´ve been away. Delicious Thai food in a cool little restaurant in the old town. It was comically expensive (English prices) so thanks Ellen and Helen for stumping up the readies.

All in all one of the best days we´ve had since we´ve been away

Lapa Crappa

Lapa is an old part of the centre of Rio where the best samba clubs are. but there is a party every night in the street pretty much. The rain and lack of toilets meant we weren´t too sure what we were dancing in so we were covered in what we called Lapa crappa. We had some good times there and after a good few caipirinhas you really think you can samba. Skol is the beer of popular choice strangely. It´s not very nice and reminds us of tramps at home but is cheap.



Our mate Rich is actually a good drummer and plays the quica a samba instrument but after a few skols not so good.......?

This old guy was one of Rio´s many can collectors. The city has a 99% aluminium recycling rate beacuse of them. He was the best samba dancer I have seen, wish we had videoed him. Ed reckoned he could give him a run for his money.

Blocos, blocos and more blocos

The best part about carnaval are the blocos. These are street parties at all hours of the day where people follow a band, normally samba and drink and dance. Normally dressed in stupid outfits. As we were staying in Ipanema in the gayest street in Rio there was some great tranny action.

I loved this family below all dressed as babies

The above 2 pics are from a Maracatu bloco which is a Northern Brazilian dance from Recife. they dance swirling round in big skirts to amazing drum beats.

Her name is Rio........

So Rio was the nuts. It has everything in a city you could possibly imagine. Sun, sea sand and green mountains. All mixed in with beautiful old baroque architecture and modern high rises together. Sunsets on Ipanema beach are quite possibly the most amazing you will ever see.

Cristo Redentor ( Christ the Redeemer) towers over the whole city on a mountain, with his arms stretched out looking after his people. It is pretty much visible everywhere in Rio. The journey up there was beautiful, full of favelas next to beautiful old mansions. They may be poor in the favelas but they certainly have the best views of the city.

Rio did however give us rain, a lot!!!!! But it didn´t stop the partying....................

I have no idea who that was in the background...deffo a gringo.

Food in Brazil

The food is amazing here. Check out this market in Rio.

All the stuff was delivered by little VW vans which run about everywhere deliverying stuff or being illegal taxis.

The suco bars are very cool too. On most street corners there´s a juice bar selling snacks and juices made from all the crazy fruit they have here. Nic really got into the maracuja. My favourite is açai, an amazonian berry they make into a herbally purple ice slush which is meant to have all kinds of amazing properties including putting lead in your pencil. The Brazilians are understandably mad for the stuff. You also get it with fruit and granola sometimes. This became a regular breakfast when we couldn´t hack the cheese and ham sandwich, melon, papaya and coffee that was on offer most places we stayed.

Sadly the food did get a bit monotonous after 2months given that they are obsessed with having rice and beans with everything. The picture below is of some ´´moqueca´´, a delicious fish or seafood stew from Bahia in the north. It did come with rice and beans of course...

They also are pretty keen on this stuff called ´´farofa´´ which is manioc flour. it looks like dust, and they´re mad for chucking it all over pretty much everything. Odd kids....

Rio Carnaval- Sambadromo.

The Carnival Parade is held in a place called the Sambadrome which is basically a road. Each school takes an hour and a half to get from 1 end to another to the same song, same dancing and same drumming but you only see it for about 20 mins due to how it is set up. There are stands either side and VIP expensive seating. We were in stand 13 with the plebs and loving the atmosphere! They go nuts for it. As we were at the end of the road it meant we saw the people go mad after finishing their parade. Especially the people drumming in the bateria would give us a special extra show for free!

They spend 8 months prepping each year. You can see below the scale of the floats and the show they put on. There is so much commitment.

The costumes are also amazing and this lovely lady posed for me especially


I made my own costume for the evet with a northern Brazilian Bahian theme. No not really it was the birds standing next to me. Who BTW was a total mentalist.


Ed did make his however, well we all kind of tore apart a costume someone chucked into the crowd at the end of their parade

This school above, Rio Grande was our favourite but yet again the same school won. Down to bribing the judges each year apparently. But the above were the winners with the crowd who of course went mad!!

This guy had shaved a bra into his chest hair for the occasion?!

These are our friends who so kindly took us there, Ricky and his family. Ricky is a total legend, we met him in Argentina. Their family were so nice to us, refusing ticket touts who wanted us gringos to pay more than the locals. Christina, Ricky´s mum is safely one of the nicest ladies we have ever met in our lives. She was our Brazilian mum.

Rio Scenarium

This video is a bit dark as was in a samba club but our mate Rich´s Strictly Come Dancing in Portuguese style commentary is really funny.

Todo Bem (sounds like toodo bayng) means ´´all is good´´, our favourite phrase here in Brazil.

Handgliding over Rio..... just like a bird.

We went hangliding in Rio as a Xmas present from Ed´s mum, thanks Andro!! Wasn´t sure what we were getting into but it was a jump off 550m Pedro Bonito and that was enough for me to be chewing off my fingernails! You take off over Tijuca National Park and gradually descend over the favelas and beach to land on Praiha Sao Conrado.

More than a little nervous beforehand

Ed in prep at the ramp.

You just have to run till the ground dissappears from under you.
That is definitely the worst bit.
Breathe!!!!!!!

Ed just after take off........

Here´s me mid flight

Here´s me mid flight again!


Ed watching me come in

and triumphant after best thing we have ever done in our lives!!!