Sun, Sea, Sand and Samba

The BBQ-meat-on-a-stick-brought-to-your-table-dining-experience is called "Churrascaria" and is fab. It would go down a treat in the UK if meat wasn't so expensive.

Anyhow, that evening we had a Samba experience in a music bar in Curitiba. It was a place that Leticia and Guilherme go fairly regularly. The band was a samba-rock band called Decompositores and they were great - mostly percussion but with a guitar and a fretless bass. The lead singer/harmonica player was one of those performers who was compulsive to watch. Guilherme taught me and C a few Samba steps and we seemd to manage pretty well. He and Leticia were particularly good and at one point Leticia was dancing with a guy who really knew his stuff. It was particularly interesting to see how that if a guy can lead confidently then the woman should be able to follow - Leticia did with amazing style. He danced with Charlotte as well and commented that he always finds European women trying to lead - something I have also observed...

A fab night was had. G and I were drining a Brazilian dark beer a bit like a sweet Guinness and L and C were drinking Caipirinha which is made from Cachaça, the Brazilian equivalent of whisky.

The next morning a bleary-eyed Guilherme drove us to the train station where we caught one of the few train journeys that you can do in Brazil. This one is one of the most renowned and was really the reason we were in Curitiba. It's called the Serra Verde Express and it goes to a place called Morretes and on the way passes through some fantastic Atlantic rainforest scenery. It was without doubt the most spectacular train journey I have ever been on with sweeping landscapes with mountains covered in trees - stunning. It was also nice passing all the old "dead stations" as Charlotte christened them. They had a certain ghost town feel to them. The weather however was freezing and as we pulled into Morretes I thought I'd never be warm again. I was still wearing shorts as I'd left my jeans in Argentina. Doh! It wasn't clear what we were supposed to do in the town so after a quick bite of our supermarket lunch we just took a wander. It was very different from Curitiba and certainly felt "exotic". Many of the houses were on stilts - I guess flooding must be a regular problem but you'd expect that for a rainforest. The train back was so quiet the guide allowed us into tourist class where at least the windows weren't made of scratched plastic. The weather different on the way back - still chilly but misty this time whcih gave the scenery a certain mystical atmosphere. It was great as we got to see it in two quite different ways.

When we arrived back in Curitiba we'd decided to buy stuff to make dinner from the supermarket and also buy ingredients to make shortbread for our hosts. This proved harder than we thought but a guy who spoke English pointed us in the right direction. Back at the train station we decided to take a taxi - the driver was a lovely chap and really wanted to chat but had no English. This led to an amusing ride with him speaking Portugese with the occasional English word and C and I smiling, nodding and laughing. In general, Brazilians are really cheerful and helpful. The shortbread was made and all too soon the next morning it was time to leave again. Leticia and Guilherme were fantastic hosts and their helpfulness and hospitality knew no bounds. Leticia even drove us to the airport which is actually in the next town - great, great people.

Everyone we spoke to about Brazil said not to stay in São Paulo so after the plane ride there we got another one of the famous South American buses to Paraty. We arrived late to our hostel so we didn't find out where we were 'till the next morning.

Now we were further north we could feel the difference in climate. Paraty is like your vision of paradise. Sun, sea, sand - not quite crystal clear waters but certainly much warmer and more swimmable than the north sea. We were to stay with a rather unusual Couchsurfer - Michel who is a 62 year old Frenchman who lives on a boat. He met us on the pier and took us to his boat via a dinghy. This was very amusing as it was only really designed fr one, maybe two people and not three people, massive bags and two fiddles. I nearly went in with my bag and fiddle on my back. That would have been pretty exciting.

Michel moved to Paraty about two years ago. His boat "Horizonte Azul" is about 40 or so years old and it is beautiful. On the outside a massive mast and sails, a proper wheel and on the inside three bedrooms, two toilets, a living/dining area and a kitchen with loads of carved wood, old light fittings etc. We had a coffee and a chat with Michel and discovered a mutual love for Irish music - he had an Irish music radio chanel playing in the boat.

Michel had to dry-dock the boat for painting so he dropped us in the town and we took a wander around. It is a very interesting place - the streets are all cobbled with stones brought from Portugal and there's loads of wee shops and houses. It was definitely more of a tourist town but still very nice. We decided to take it easy since it felt like that kind of place so eventually we found a place on the beach and spent the afternoon there reading our books and paddling in the sea.

That evening we met Michel at one of the bars where we also met one of his friends who was also French. In fact, he spoke little English and little Portuguese as well despite having lived in Brazil for 2 years. Given that I have no grasp of languages whatsoever, it became C's job to try and chat (in a mixture of English and broken French punctuated by bits of Gaelic) while I sat, laughed and drank Caipirinha. Very pleasant. We then left to get some food at a "pay by weight" resteraunt. These are quite common in Brazil apparently. The trick is to fill your place with light stuff (salad, chips etc.) before going for the heavy meat which was cooked on a BBQ. More fantastic meat was eaten, much to my delight. It was then back to the boat where we slept like logs and woke up the next morning slighty mindful that we'd had a couple of strong drinks the night before.

It's a novelty for us to be able to swim in the sea without pain and brain freeze so we decided to dig out the swimming costumes (C's bikini had it's debut outing) and head back to the beach. Another very relaxing day was spent reading, paddling and swimming. We weren't far enough north for the water to be properly warm yet but it was much more pleasant than my prvious sea swimming experience in the waters of Coldingham! Food was taken in another pay by weight establishment - this time it was based around fish and was again, very good indeed. Michel was kind enough to cook us dinner on the boat. We wanted to try and help but there's so little space that was impossible so instead we played tunes and sang. Michel played a wee bit on his melodion as well but for the main part seemed to be happy to listen to us. We headed into town looking for a quiet cafe to play in but most of them were closed or about to close. We played for a wee bit outside a creperie though and had a wander round the beginnings of the Cachaça festival about to happen in Paraty.

The next day it was time to move on. We said to Michel that if he ever came back to Europe he should come and visit us in Scotland but he said "i have found my paradise, I'm keeping it". It's so nice to meet someone who is entirely happy with their life - it was a pleasure for us to spend time with Michel and his boat. The Couchsurfing is working out really well so far.

I write this now from Rio de Janiero which gives me the perfect opportunity to post this video which I've been driving Charlotte crazy with by singing all week.

We are now at the home of Daniel and Carol, our next couchsurfers and it's here that we meet with Charlotte's sister Kat, her husband Bruno and her parents Nigel and Sandy. We haven't seen Kat and Bruno since they left the UK over a year ago so this is a big reunion.

Love to all and in particular a big congrats to my parents on their 35th wedding anniversary!