Birthday on tour...

Haven't been able to post for a while; have had a couple of long old bus journeys followed by a pretty intensive last few days!!

So, the years roll on quickly and last Monday was my *cough cough* 29th birthday; even though Kate thought and has been telling most people that it was my 30th...  It was also my first birthday in 29 years where it was not spent at home; so a pretty emotional one.

The morning started off pretty good; early wake-up call at 6.30 to get a boat at 9 out of Ilha Grande and to a small town further South of Rio called Parati; where we planned to spend just one night before getting a bus across to the Iguazu Falls.  This was then followed by Nijah (accompanied by her dog Julie) singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese to me at the top of voice.  We were also the only ones remaining in the hostel as she was closing it to prepare for Carnival in a few weeks time; so we had a mammoth breakfast all to ourselves, quickly finished packing, then headed down to the small port to get a Catamaran across back to the main land.

The bus to Parati wasn't exactly what we were hoping for... but you can't expect much for about £3.  The bus rocked up and we quickly realised that the next 2 hours were to be spent on a public, non air-conditioned bus, full of local people.  Fun!

The hostel in Parati was the same company as one stayed in previously - so knew that it would be half decent - and we were meeting up with the girls from the last hostel on the night for birthday drinks!!

We arrived at around midday; so the next few hours were an exploration of the town, which quickly moved into lying on the beach doing absolutely nothing...  Kate and I have also found out that where ever we seem to go, we attract all of the local stray dogs... even on the most remotest of beaches in the middle of no-where.

On the evening we met up with Annabel and Julie and headed across to the beach bar for a couple of beers and a couple of Caiparinhas to get the mood going; then headed into the main town of Parati and found a small local restaurant which served the most amazing fish that I've had since being here!!  Although the one thing that made the night complete was the Portuguese Amy Winehouse singer, who, instead of singing; '...kitchen floor', sang what very much sounded like; '...chicken whore'.  Classic!!  After a few more beers we headed back through town and stopped off again at the beach bar for a couple more grande beers and then finally collapsed at 3ish; ready for another early morning to reach Sao Paulo....

As birthday's go; it was a pretty damn good one; with great people, great food and lots of beer!!

Stray dogs... #1

Stray dogs... #2