A week in Camaçari

The first day back in Camaçari was an early start for some as Kat took Charlotte to her Jiu jitsu class. For those of you who don't know, Charlotte is not by any means inexperienced in martial arts - she did Judo right up to the middle of University. It's been a while for her but I'm told she held her own pretty well. I'm taking that as second hand information though as I did the sensible thing and stayed in bed.

The Brazillian custom of heading to the beach was adheared to beautifully this week as three were visited. The first, Guarajuba was my favourite of all the beaches we'd been to. It had no stones/rocks/sharp shells but instead white sands, big waves and the water was warm. Warm sea water is a bizarre feeling if you're used to the Arctic temperatures of the North Sea. Charlotte, Kat, Bruno, Nigel and myself bobbed around for ages, experimenting with different ways of jumping the waves. We visited another beach, Arembepe the next day but it was too rocky and the waves too big. They would have been great to play in but there was a very high probability of being smashed to bits on the rocks. When even the Brazilians think it's a risk you've really got to listen. We did have some beach food there though - wee fried and battered fish with more fantastic meat and some kind of root which was like giant chips. It's a hard life.

Salvador feels very different to Rio, much more down-at-heel. Looking over the city from a high point you could see that the buildings really neaded some repair. It's an interesting mix of people though. In the past, slaves were brought to Brazil from Africa and most of them landed in Salvador. This keeps the city a very African feel and you can see evidence of African origins in the people. It even has a market selling African/Brazilian crafts. Despite the down-at-heel-ness there were some very pretty bits of Salvador including an area with the buildings all painted different colours. There were Hawkers everywhere though - the classic tactic was to offer you something as a "gift" and then take the gift back when no money was forthcoming. At one point there were folk doing Capoeira which is like a cross between fighting and dancing. We stopped to watch and the leader said we had to give him money for watching. When Bruno said "no" (it was a public area after all) he threatened to beat him up. We just wandered off and it seemed to pass OK.

A particular highlight of the week was meeting some of Bruno's family. We first visited his aunt, uncle and cousins who he and Kat had stayed with when they first arrived in Brazil. We then visited his mum and sisters, one of who has a baby on the way. His mum had made a very keen meal with some fantastic fish which even Sandy enjoyed, despite her fish dislike. We also sampled some of the freshest coconut ever as it was cut off the tree by Bruno and cracked open by his mum. More significant meetings were on another beach day-out with two of Kat's pupils (she teaches English here) who relished the opportunity to practice. Sandy and Nigel were particularly good at helping them find the right words and making sure they were pronouncing things correctly. They exchanged Skype addresses so perhaps the lessons will continue!

Incidently, there's an election here next month so it's been interesting to see the canvassing. It's quite a different style to the UK. The politicans employ people to drive around in their cars with big speakers on the roof blaring out election messages at full volume. The voting is done by number so the politicians have songs and jingles including the number so that folk remember. I was trying to think what a UK politician would have as their song...

Gordon Brown, Gordon Brown, he's the man to run the town,
If you're lucky he'll smile, not frown,
Actually, maybe that's not a good idea.

It's been a huge pleasure to stay here with Kat and Bruno and see a little bit of how they live here. Sandy and Nigel have also been great to hang out with and particularly helpful to our budget as the "free stuff with mum and dad" maxim has come into play big style. A huge thanks due to all but now it's time for Charlotte and I to head off on the next stage of our adventure. Tonight we fly Salvador-Sao Paulo-Lima-Cusco and a new country - Peru. Witha ll the Inca relics it's a tourist paradise and we've had lots of people telling us how wonderful it is and some saying how dreadful it is. We'll be the judges ourselves and you'll find out what we think her in due course. Keep up and keep checking out the photos on Flickr.

Love to all.

The Precious is gone! Where's a fortuitous fish when you need one?

After Rio we flew to Salvador to stay with Kat and Bruno in Camaçari. Camaçari is different again from the other places we've been in Brazil - a sort of dirty little town which definitely doesn't expect tourists. Maybe it seemed like that because it was raining. We met their cats, and their house, and then went for dinner (a saga in itself involving getting very lost in traffic. Enough said. Things are very far apart in Brazil). Next day we were to get up early (well, try - very difficult to fit to any time scheme when there's 6 of you) and head to Chapada - an area 6 hours drive inland full of mountains, rivers and caves. It's an ex-diamond region, and the landscape again grew very different from what we'd seen in Brazil so far as we approached. We'd hired a car, and I think it's safe to say that Bruno drives like a maniac. Or perhaps that's just the roads. They're very bumpy and full of potholes so that he does these sudden stomach-lurching swerves at 100mph to avoid them. Then there are the trucks. They drive very slowly, and there are lots of them. So cars are obliged to do mental feats of overtaking, playing chicken with the things coming the other way. There don't appear to be any road rules that people obey at any rate.

We were staying in a pretty little town called Lençóis - which means laundry or sheets or linen or something. Bruno kicked us out of the car so he could find a place for us to stay without them ripping us off. He did well. After we had settled ourselves in, disaster struck. We didn't have time to do anything substantial, so we went on a little walk (for walk, read drive) to the river. The river bed would have been full during rainy season, but now just a small stream ran and landed in smooth pools at intervals as it travelled down the hill. The riverbed itself was made of a rainbow of smooth oval rocks embedded in overall hard rock surface. Deep round pools sunk in here and there, so that the water collected into dark bottomless baths. Some were empty too - just smooth round tubs. Anyway, it was beautiful and weird-looking.

Paul, Bruno and Kat jumped in one of the pools for a swim - it looked like a very cold brown watered jacuzzi. I think people normally wash their clothes in them. I turned round for a few minutes and when I turned back, worried expressions. Paul had lost his wedding ring in the murky depth. What was going to be a nice splashy afternoon in the sunshine turned into a panicked race against the setting sun full of diving in impossible conditions. There was no way they could have found the ring in there. The water was too murky to see in and too cold to stay under for any length of time. The Precious was lost! Bruno leapt from rock to rock like Gollum, before, like a hero, he scuttled off in just his speedos to find some goggles in town in the vain hope we still had a chance of finding the ring. The sun had just disappeared behind the hills when he reappeared with two lads in tow, one sporting some scuba goggles. They tried diving too, asking how much the ring was worth - hoping for a substantial reward or to sell it if they found it. For all we know they lied to us and did find it in the end. We never got it back. Paul was devastated, but coming to accept the loss by this point.

Now, by rights, what should happen next is that the ring will be swallowed by a fortuitous fish, which will be caught by a humble fisherman, sold at a faraway market, bought by the chef at the seafood restaurant in Camacari we're going to, and end up on Paul's plate complete with the ring inside its stomach. If this was a proper story. For now we've just got a Gollum interpretation. Some hapless swimmer will come across it and be transformed by the magical engraving inside, revealed by the fire they'll use to try and melt it down to sell ('Charlotte, 6/9/8') and cursed by the immortal lines: One ring to marry them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. We all tried our best to cheer Paul up and I think we succeeded. After all, it's of these little incidents a round the world trip is made (*For Scott*). His losing things record is getting pretty impressive!

That evening we had a go at some Brazilian street food - Acarajé, which consisted of a deep fried bean bun with chili oil (v powerful), bean paste, some salad, okra stew and shrimps. Really good. Followed it with some variously fruited caipirinhas and tapioca pancakes (surprisingly stretchy). The stalls were in a covered market which was strangely empty of most market-related things, except for a guy sitting at a table with his guinea-pig. He looked a little embarrassed as we all crowded round him making squeaking noises.

Next day we hired a guide - something very new to me, and he took us on a botanical trek past the accursed river bed and up a hill. We swam in pools under waterfalls, and in the afternoon we went for a swim in a part of the river where big pools had gathered, and the rock was worn smooth by the water. One part of it formed a giant water slide, which I found traumatic and painful, but everyone seemed to think was amazing. One guy was even running down it. I think he was showing off to Kat because she could speak Portuguese. Place was worth it after the trek in the heat. The day after we graciously employed the same guide (Bruno had beaten him down to a good price - not physically of course. Although we weren't there so we're only assuming that.) who took us away in the car to see further away things. More waterfalls (complete with monkeys who always gather where there is human food to be had), up a big rock with a view over other big rocks and desert-like landscape for miles around, and finally some caves where, at a particular time of day, chemicals in the water made it spakle blue

On the way home today Bruno decided to stop in a town which seemed to exist only to sell stolen goods, and risk our own car being nicked by having lunch there. People shouted stuff at us as we went past, and we knew it wasn't complimentary because I could pick out the word 'gringo'. At the cafe, on the other hand, the staff seemed delighted to see us and offered us loads of food for very little money. A feast of rice, spaghetti, salad, meat (BBQ of course) and a manioc flour thing with beans in was laid out before us. All very good. We weren't sure why they were so keen to be nice to us - it was the most friendly reception we've had yet in an eating establishment! We had Mexican last night and Bruno says the waiter was being very rude to us in Portuguese. No tip for him. Bruno is very good at refusing to pay the service charge :)

This evening we went to a big sprawling fruit market which was great, and Bruno let us buy some weird-looking fruits to try. There was probably more to say, but I've forgotten it now. [Insert local colour and witty observations here.]

The Rio Tourist Trail

One of the nice things about hanging around with Nigel, Sandy and Kat is that we have the excuse to be real tourists for a bit, something we usually try and avoid. Believe me, there are plenty of things to do as a tourist in Rio. The statue "O Cristo Redentor" or "Christ the Redeemer" or, "the Jesus Statue" as I've come to term it is one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. It's so iconic in fact that if you go looking for it on Google maps you'll find a lovely 3D rendered version of it that you can fly around. This, of course doesn't compare to the real thing. You reach it by a rack-and-pinion railway which climbs the Corcovado mountain through the lush and green looking Tijuca Forest Park and the views are already getting spectacular as you head up. At the top it's stunning. You can see right round the city including the domestic airport, something I found most interesting as the runway juts right out in the water so a mis-calculation on someone's part could potentially result in the all-too-famous lifejackets finally finding a use. The statue itself is art deco, built in the 1920s and finally opened in 1931. It looks over the city with arms outstreched protecting all the murderers, theives and con-artists that (we're told) reside within. It was an opportunity for us to have an EYG bag moment. In case you dont know what I'm talking about, Charlotte has been carrying around one of the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin cloth bags and the aim is to have a photo taken in each country with it in front of an obvious monument. This is our Brazil shot. Our argentina one was in from of the Argentinian congress building a and you can see them, along with all our other photos on our Flickr page. Back on the ground we spent the afternoon chilling out at K, N and S's hotel before heading to the park we'd seen the day before with the guinea-squirrels (capybaras according to the well travelled Lucy), cats, peacocks and other miscellaneous birds. I think this one wins the award for the most random cats in one are. At one point Nigel was chatted up by an interesting looking lady under the watchful eye of (we think) her 'sales representative'. She eventually figures she was barking up the wrong tree.

In the evening Kat, Charlotte and myself decided to try and get a feel for the Rio nightlife and were thus advised to head to the district of Lapa, famous for nighclubs, Samba bars and generally the venue for anyone looking for a wild night out. We got there far too early and not a lot was going on so we found an open-air bar to take a dring in, a beer and a couple of the now famous caipirinhas. Behind us was a bit table of folk who had a guitar and a ukelele and seemed to be breaking into songs occasionally but we let them be for the moment. We took a wander round the block looking for a place we'd found on-line which looked good but when we couldn't find it we headed back to the bar where we starteed, agreeing that it was quite a reasonable place to spend the evening. When we got back, the a guy at the big table invited us over to come and hear some Brazillain music. We were only to happy to do so - it turned out that they were a load of Ethnomusicology students on a night out with their lecturers for one of the older lecturers birthday. One of the lecturers had spent some time in Scotland and shouted "bonnie lass" at Kat and Charlotte and "braw lad" at me. He knew quite a few people invloved in musical acoustics at the University of Edinburgh, most notably Murray Campbell who lectured me in 2nd year and sand in the Church choir from time-to-time (he lived in Carlops, about 4-5 miles from Penicuik. a bizarre coincidence. The lecturer who's birthday it was knew of a couple of folk in the School of Scottish Studies as well. We taught them the cup percussion routine (we'll show you sometime if you ask) and sang them the Kelty Clippie accompanied by one of the students on the guitar. It was a sort of Brazillain Clippie by the end - he picked it up pretty quickly. We left agreeing that we'd had the perfect evening really without trying to find it.

Today we went to do the other Rio tourist activity, the Sugar Loaf Mountain cable car ride. It was the third cable car in the world, and started service in 1912 before a period out of service and an upgrade to the current "bubble" style cars in the 1970s. More spectacular views of the city abounded - it really is a city best seen from above.

Kat and Sandy were wiped out with heat by the end of that so they headed back to the hotel which Nigel, Charlotte and I headed to the famous Ipanema Beach, famous from the song "The Girl from Ipanema". We'd had a swimming experience already on Flamengo beach but I really fancied a go in the waves and the small pool which we'd seen on Ipanema a couple of days before (Ipanema is an oceanic beach so the waves are much higher than on the beaches in the bays). It was completely worth it, C and I played in the waves for ages even swimming to the point that we couldn't reach the bottom, a new experience for both of us.

Dinner was at another pay-by-weight place (the best one yet it was agreed) and even desserts were taken this time. It's becoming a game in which the winner is the person with the lowest priced plate. Kat won this evening with Sandy declared the loser. As yet I have never one but neither have I lost. We decided to take the risk of an evening stroll and a drink on Copacabana beach, previously the site of the toothpaste incident (I must wash my boot...) and it passed without drama. It seems that the worst of our Rio troubles was the toothpase incident so all-in-all after everyone's warnings we've probably done pretty well. There was also a bus driver who tried to seriously short-change us but given that he was writing down how much he was short-changing everone by we found him out. Tomorrow it's off to Salvador then Kat and Bruno's place in Camaçari. We haven't seen Bruno yet since we got here so we're all looking forward to a yarn with him.

Love to all.

P.S. Time-shift back to our first Couchsurfers in Buenos Aires, Marina took a video of part of the amazing evening fo food and music we had at their place which you can take a look at. Good memories - C's getting pretty good at teaching the dance now!

Itchy and Scratchy

So many bites! Arrrrrrgh!

Rio

The bus pulled into Rio and again the heat and humidity went up another notch. I was already nervous about the Rio part of the trip, particularly carrying the heavy bags in a big scary city, so I was a bit twitchy and tired from the lulling effect sitting on a warm bus. Our job was to find our couchsurfing hosts, but this was not a trivial affair. We bought a map but couldn't find their address on it. We spent hours looking for tourist info but could find no-one who could help us. We paid for an internet session and found a message from them with a phone number, but the line was dreadful and our credit ran out before we could organise anything. Potential stress and disaster! Luckily our hosts, Daniel and Carol, rescued us like angels and came and found us at the station. After 2 or 3 hours there I've never been so happy to see someone!

On the way to finding a bus to their house a guy started hassling me saying 'money! money!' - I suppose we'll have to expect more of this kind of thing. Let me just say that local buses are not made for giant backpacks. Anyway, enough of all that. We were exhausted and starving, so when we got off the bus we stopped on a street corner, where a temporary BBQ and general food stall had been set up. Someone brought us some plastic stools, and we propped ourselves up against the side of a bank and someone else brought us meat on sticks and coke (the drink, not the powder - it wasn't that kind of street). Much needed! The way it worked was that you bought a load of tokens, then could use them to buy things like meat on stick, cheese on stick, etc etc. Really good, if a little bit surreal. There was no sign of the impromptu cafe the next morning.

Another beautiful thing about arriving with Daniel and Carol was access to a shower and washing machine. Sometimes these things just get taken for granted when you have a permanent home to live in! We spent the evening explaining the difference between Scotland and England (the concept of the UK is really baffling to an outsider) and trying to convey the sheer weirdness of Hugh Laurie in House, by showing some old Youtube clips of Blackadder. House seems to be huge in South America. Personally, I don't think I could ever take Hugh Laurie seriously, but I feel a sort of possessive pride at what he's managed to achieve overseas.

The next day we boldly ventured into town and braved the seemingly baffling transport system. Daniel and Carol live quite far out in a reasonably poor part of Rio. Daniel assured us that this didn't mean it was unsafe - the people there 'weren't worth robbing'. He pointed out that at that moment, in one of the posh hotels in Copacabana a bunch of drug dealers had taken everyone hostage and there was a police shoot-out going on. It turned out there were 60 dealers hauled up inside. The dangerous areas are the tourist areas, and the places where the dealers actually live.

We had a wander about town and then went home - not easy, because of the aforementioned stupid transport system (I'm sure it makes sense if you can speak Portuguese!). The wonderful thing about Brazilians though is that we would be standing around looking confused, and someone would always come up to us and ask if we needed help, then try to help. Even if they couldn't speak English and even if their help sent us in the wrong direction. You'd never get that in Britain. We've had a lot of people just come up to us and offer us help like that.

So far we've had a policy of arriving at a new place with no expectations and just seeing what happens, but this tactic doesn't seem to work with Rio. We've just had no idea what to do. People said, 'oh, Rio's amazing - you'll want days there, there's so much to do,' but the problem was, what WAS there to do? Nothing was immediately evident. In Buenos Aires we'd just walked around and come across things, but here it feels like you really need to know what you're looking for, or at least the right places to go. So we wandered around a market selling crap, ate a nice stodgy thing with cheese and ham, and drank sugar cane juice. I'm happy to say, we have not been robbed. In the evening we got back and made cottage pie and shortbread for our hosts, and some Italian couchsurfers who arrived just as we were serving up. It was a proper little party! To finish off, Paul and I played a few tunes, taught Daniel the Gay Gordons, and sang some songs. Good times.

Yesterday we met up with Mum, Dad, and Kat - seeing her for the first time in well over a year. Very exciting. She's changed a lot I think! Or maybe not - maybe I'm just saying that for something to say. We had another wander around, spent a long time trying to interpret a restaurant menu, and have been driving Kat mad forcing her to be the official communicator with the locals. We went to Ipanema and Copacabana (just so we'd been) and admired all the people in their swimwear. The men like to go jogging in just speedos, and the women wear strings with bits of cloth attached. But they get away with it because there seems to be this strange culture of working out and body obsession among the Brazilians. There's even gym equipment on the beach, people playing sports, etc etc. The land of the beautiful. I was expecting to feel a bit intimidated by all the buff bodies, but it's just fascinating to see. We went for a swim on the beach ourselves today. Hurrah! We all looked very pale and wobbly, although Kat has got herself one of the local strings-and-cloth jobs. She says it was the largest she could find.

We walked through Copacabana as it was getting dark and the culture there was so different from other bits of Rio we'd experienced so far. It was all about getting as much of your money off you as possible - people thrusting things in your face, being harrassed with every step. It didn't help that we were a party of 5 pale blonde people I suppose! At one point Paul noticed a white blob on his shoe (turned out to be toothpaste) and a few minutes later, a man ran after him shouting 'shoe-shine! shoe-shine!' It was the audacity of it that annoyed us more than anything else. And though it was quite funny afterwards (especially as he'd really chosen the wrong person to con - don't squirt someone with walking boots, they obviously don't care what their shoes look like), it was also really sad that this was what the guy was reduced to doing.

Today we took our leave of our lovely hosts, and it was a shame we didn't get to spend more time with them! We're staying in a seedy little hostel now so we can be closer to the family (they're staying in relative luxury!) - when we arrived the door was unlabelled and unassuming in a slightly shady street. We would have walked straight past it if some woman hadn't come out and shouted at us. We've done more of the same today - beach and walking about having an explore. We've had coconut water (the stuff that fills a green coconut before it gets absorbed into the flesh) and watched parakeets in the trees. We also saw some weird giant guinea-pig things in a park, as well as a swarm of cats, some ducks and geese, and a peacock (all trying to eat cat food through the park fence). Also, Dad and Kat said they saw a monkey but I missed that. Enough of the wildlife report. Mum had a long conversation with a tramp who wanted her money. She gave him a nut.

That's all for now. Tomorrow we go and look for Jesus. It involves getting up early and taking a train or something.

Ta-ta!

For Scott

Top 5 favourite moments of Brazil so far:

1. Getting to see Kat again after what seems like forever (and seeing Mum and Dad too of course)
2. Samba!
3. Food by weight and BBQ meat that comes round on a stick (see previous posts)
4. The boat in Paraty - amazing
5. Paddling in a sea that is warm where staying in isn't some kind of bravado endurance test (I was going to write swim, but that would have been a lie - perhaps tomorrow!)

Honorable mention - the kindness and generosity of the fantastic Brazilians!

Bottom few moments:

1. Still being ill after a week and a half. Note to self - when returning to UK, take out wretched tonsils.
2. Paul losing things (I think the head torch still hurts him the most)
3. A bus door taking a bite out of Paul's fiddle case (useful news on the fiddle survival sweepstake front!)
4. Waking up to find a) new and unidentified insect bites all over me (esp round the ankles), and b) that I have been scratching them all night. But it always feels so good at the time!
5. Being tired, lost, confused and frustrated in Rio bus station with no idea how to find where we were meant to be going (they don't like the idea of 'tourist information' in Rio, apparently). Luckily we were rescued by our wonderful hosts!

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!