When searching for a needle in a hay stack, call a man with a metal detector!

On our last full day in Sydney (well at least for this round since we will be back in 2 weeks), Kiera and Dave were both able to take the day off work to spend with us. We had thought about spending the day in the Blue Mountains, but when we woke up and found it to be a very hot and sunny day, after many days of rain and cloud we decided to take the ferry over to Manly instead and spend the day relaxing on Manly beach. From Kiera and Dave's we caught the train down-town to Circular Quay where you grab the Ferry over to Manly. When we arrived we found we had just missed the ferry and had to wait about 30mins for the next one so we decided to stroll through the Neighbourhood called The Rocks, Sydney's oldest neighbourhood which has been converted to a trendy, artsy type area, to grab a quick lunch at the market. We headed back to the ferry and enjoyed the scenic ride through the harbour before reaching Manly.


After picking up some much needed Gelato for the boys and gossip mags for the girls we headed to the beach and got comfy for the day. It was quite hot and the waves were pretty big, the kind that you just want to go play in, so we were all in and out of the water all day. On our first venture into the water Keira felt like her wedding rings were a bit loose in the water (Keira and Dave are happily married about 18 months) so she decided to go put them in her pockets safely on dry land. Like most do on a crowded beach, we spend the day taking turns going in and out of the water ensuring our stuff was never left alone so when we stood up to leave and Keira's diamond engagement ring was no longer in her pocket we were baffled. The other 2 rings were there and so were the rest of our valuables; wallets, credit cards, phones, etc and there was someone with our stuff all day so we quickly ruled out that we had been robbed. The next logical thing, and probably the worst possible situation, was that the ring had fallen out of her pocket into the sand and it was now buried. Kiera was understandable a bit panicked while the 3 others tried to stay calm even though we all knew we were basically searching for a needle in a haystack.......albeit a very VERY valuable needle. 



We searched and sifted through sand for a little over an hour with zero luck and were just about ready to give up and head to the ferry when I suggested that she at least drop by the lifeguard stand and leave her contact information in the miraculous case that some honest person finds the ring in the sand. We found a lifeguard and he jotted down their info but also informed us that the lifeguards had the number of someone who had a metal detector and often comes down to search for things that people lost on the beach, for a fee of course. All little sceptical Kiera and Dave made the call anyway and 30 mins later an adorable older couple appears with a metal detector. We do introductions and they do a little comforting, letting us all know that they more often than not find what they are looking for and then we lead them to the spot where we were sitting. What happened next was nothing short of amazing, within 15 seconds of waving his wand above the sand he leans over, scoops up some sand in his sifter, shakes it off and THERE IT IS!! After a few Omigod's from us all and maybe a tear or two, Kiera gives the miracle couple a hug and we head off back to the ferry. Needless to say we stopped in the city to grab some food and celebratory drinks before heading back to the house for one last sleep at Keira and Dave's. Next up a quick flight to Melbourne to spend a few days catching up with one of Jonny's good friends from Dundas - Marci!

Looking into "the Rocks"

Arriving at Manly Wharf

The sun and sand at Manly

View of the harbour from the Manly ferry

OOO_Talia

Bronte to Bondi Coastal Walk

The weather in the morning started out as it had the last couple mornings, a bit rainy and cloudy, but after we finally got moving it looked like the sun was going to win the fight through the clouds so we figured we better take advantage of the day and GET OUTSIDE! We decided that we would head to Sydney's famous Bondi beach again and spend the day relaxing in the sun and bronzing of course. We had heard that there was a really nice coastal walk that you could do from Bronte Beach to Bondi which offered spectacular views of the ocean perched on top of massive rocky cliffs. The entire walk is only about 3km so not strenuous by any means so we decided that we would take the train/bus to Bronte and then just end at Bondi for the day. 


We started by grabbing a coffee at one of the many cafes along the beach strip in Bronte and then started out on the walk. The views along the walk did not disappoint to say the least! Simply describing them would probably not do them any justice so instead we will share some photos

Beginning of Bronte Beach 

Jonny standing over the cliffs of Bronte Beach

Enjoying the views over the cliff

Looking back at double beaches

Inside the cliffs approaching Bondi

Bondi Beach skate park

The surfers trying to catch a wave at Bondi

After ending the walk in Bondi beach we set up shop on the edge of the surf. On top of being a pretty and trendy beach spot, Bondi is also a great place for people watching. It is filled with locals looking to get noticed, backpackers with stark white skin and fresh off the plane foreigners trying to learn how to surf. We spend the afternoon bronzing, swimming, people watching and shopping along the strip. We even got to witness the famous Bondi Beach Surf Rescue Ream complete a rescue which was filmed for their reality T.V show, although it was a pretty boring rescue really. All and all a very perfect Sydney day!


OOO_Talia

Parents you would be so proud..... we went to a Museum!

We have been in Sydney a few days now and have had a great time staying at Kiera and Dave's amazing house....complete with real guest room and all! We have even already had the chance to take in some of the great things Sydney had to offer; Dinner and a pub crawl along King St. wharf, Cockle Bay wharf and Darling Harbour, Celebrating St. Patrick's day checking out the spots in Newtown, venturing up to the Northern Beaches, shopping along George St. and Pitt St. in the city centre, and even make a quick stop in Bondi beach to hit a Canadian themed bar to fill Jonny's poutine craving (Although the poutine and Frickles, aka fried pickles, were quite delicious the rest of the place did not at all resemble Canada, there was not 1 single maple leaf, the rest of the menu consisted of mostly Mexican food, and there was not a single Canadian beer on the menu). It had been a great start to our time here in Sydney. 

Having a drink at Opera Bar

View of Harbour Bridge and Opera house from the ferry

Opera house close up 

When Jonny and I travel to a new city we typically try and stay away from the big touristy things to do. You know things like; Aquariums/Zoo's, Ripley's Believe It or Not type things, large structures or towers that you pay a lot of money to go up, that sort of thing. We like to look in local magazines or city newspapers to find things that local people would do. In his research, Jonny found that one of the city's biggest museums, the Australia Museum, sets up a sort of concert/games/bar/entertainment night every Tuesday night from 5:30 - 9:30. Sounds like a true hipster event ...so of course we had to check it out. 


The entrance was a very reasonable $15 dollars which included access to the entire museum, all the activities for the night and a free drink. It was a really eclectic set of events going out spread out through the museum. Nestled right among the exhibits were 3 bars (bonus, you could also drinks anywhere in the museum), arts & crafts, Dance Dance Revolution contest, Board games, silent disco (a big dance party where everyone is wearing headphones playing individual music so it sounds silent), '90s trivia, live artists, hula hoop show and lessons, live reptile show (much to my despair it included a live snake so Jonny had to be on the look out all night so I always knew where to avoid the snake) and local indie bands. The crowd covered everyone from yuppies coming right from the office to full on hippies, they even accepted us in shorts and flip-flops - unlike many other Sydney establishments. 

Live artist at work

Checking out some exhibits

The Florence-esk lead singer

Checking out the Camera's perform

It was such a cool space, a wicked concept for an event and a really great way to get the 20 and 30 something's into the museum. Jonny and I spent a hour or so wandering through the exhibits and the events spread out through the museum and then caught the second band, The Cameras, playing their set. The band was ok, not great, but worth a listen. They kind of had a folk rock sound and a very Florence Welsh - wannabe female lead singer. After catching most of the bands second set we headed the Darlinghurst 'hood, which is supposed to have some great restaurants and also is home to Sydney's "gaybourhood", to grab some food. We ended up a great little BYOB (bring your own booze) place called the Pink Peppercorn that specializes in Burma and Laos food. We hit the local bottleshop next door for a cheap bottle of Australian Red and dined on pork dumplings and a traditional Lamb dish that came highly recommended by the waiter and the couple seated at the table next to us. After we were stuffed and tipsy from the bottle of red we grabbed to train back to Kiera and Dave's to hit the hay, but not before hiking the hill of death that you need to climb to get from the station to their place - luckily it helped us work off our dinner!


OOO_Talia

Livin in a Van down by the Ocean

After a weekend of getting cheeky in Byron Bay and soaking up the sun and surf we hopped on a train back to Brisbane for the night.  We knew that we wanted to drive and camp down the east coast on our way to Sydney and upon the recommendation from our friend Keith we looked into this company called Camper Van Relocation's. Essentialy it is a company that works with all the camper van rental companies to arrange having their vans relocated back to the major cities travelers drop them off in random places or if they get to many in one city. We ended up getting a wicked deal on a van that needed to be moved from Brisbane back to Sydney over 4 days - for that bargain basement price of 1$/day we had ourselves some wheels and a home for 4 days!!

Picking up our home for the week

We only had the one night to spend in Brisbane so I can't say that we saw too much, but after being directed to a hostel close to the station, Tinbilly's, by a few neighborhood drunks and getting settled in we headed down to the west end to grab some dinner. Although we didn't have to many expectations about Brisbane (Jonny had been before and thought of it as kind of the Hamilton of Australia), we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty the city was at night. Once in the west end, a pretty hip neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars, we settled on a gourmet burger place for some dinner. Jonny had his much anticipated Aussie burger, complete with beets and an egg on top and I had a delicious chicken burger and then we headed back to the hostel to grab some sleep.

Brisbane skyline at night

The next morning we got up early to run a few errands before heading out to pick up our van. We planned to take public transit which would take about an hour to get the van but we were running a bit late from our errands and really wanted to hit the road so we asked a cabbie approximately how much it would take to get there - about $20, one quoted us. So we grabbed our stuff and hailed a cab out to the van pick up.......$50 dollars later we arrived, good thing that this van was only costing us 1$/day. A pick up we thought would only take us about 20 mins quickly turned to 2 hours. The poor guy who was at the van pick up place was a bit overwhelmed since we didn't have all the info from the van company and had about 3 pick ups already. He was a very lovely man, but organization was not his strong suit, plus he loved to chat to. We heard all about the time he spend in Canada 20 years ago in Picton working on the shipyards. After getting to know him a bit a getting the paper work out of the way we finally got our van, which obviously drives on the right side of the road it being Oz and all but SURPRISE..... its also standard! After taking a few tours around the parking lot (I say we, but mean Jonny because I wasn't going near that steering wheel) getting used to the clutch we hit the open roads on our way South......FIRST STOP - SURFER'S PARADISE (or is it....)

We had planned to skip surfer's paradise all together since it wasn't really the vibe we were going for our this journey. We were looking for serene, picturesque, secluded, etc and Surfer's is more like Niagara Falls on a beach (with the Ripleys Bealieve it or not and all) but we decided to stop anyway just so I could see it. We were planning to spend a bit of the afternoon bronzing there but we were running a bit behind schedule so instead we just took a bit of a walk along the beach and then hit the local bottle shop to grab some supplies for our nights camping then it was back in the van to head to our stop for the night - Yamba.

Yamba is a picturesque little seaside village a few KM off the highway right at the tip of Yuragir National Park. We found a place to park our "home" for the night near the beach and drifted off. The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn, drove the 2mins down the road so we could be right on the beach and watched the most unreal sunrise come up over the combination of beach and rocky coastline. All I could think was.. 3 more days of these sunrises and sunsets... what better way to take in Australia?

Entrance way to Surfer's Paradise

Sun rising over Yamba

Fisherman in Yamba at sun rise

 After an epic morning barefoot run on the beach and cooking up a quick breakfast in our van kitchen we hit the road to make up some ground we had lost yesterday. We had a big list of coastal spots that were very far off that beaten path that we wanted to hit.

The first place we planned to hit for the day was Minnie Waters, a tiny town hidden deep in the Yuragir National Park about 40KM off the Pacific Coast Highway. Minnie Waters was a breathtaking little beach, we even pulled our van right up onto the sand and just enjoyed the solitude for a while. Also known for having lots of wildlife given its location deep in the national park, Minnie Waters was also where I spotted my first and second Kangaroos on the trip! The first one we spotted as it hopped along dirt road in front of us as we made our way to the walking trail. The second one we spotted however was a bit different. We drove by one that I swore was "sleeping" on a little slope just on the side of the road so I made Jonny reverse so I could take a picture of it but as we approached a little closer we realized that it wasn't actually "sleeping" on the side of the road.... it was actually dead on the side of the road. I decided it would be a bit to morbid to take a picture of a dead 'roo so we kept driving. The rest of our day included stops in the quaint coastal villages of Scots Head and South West Rocks before we parked for the night in Bonny Hills. Once we found our spot for the night in Bonny Hills we headed down to the beach to take in another gorgeous sunset before cooking up some dinner again in the van.

Empty beach at Minnie Waters

Chilling with the van in Minnie Waters

Enjoying pre dinner drinks in the Van

Dinner in the van

The next morning the weather was a bit off so we skipped our morning beach run (or at least that was our excuse), made a quick breakfast and then headed in to town to pick up a few Long Blacks (what they call a regular black coffee here in Oz). Then we hit the road.
Our first stop was in a little town called Forester the beach there was nice but we had seen better so we continued on to our next stop for the day - Seals Rocks. This is a gorgeous little spot, hard to even call it a town really because there is pretty much nothing there. We spent the better part of the afternoon there swimming and tanning on the beach and taking up hike up to Sugarloaf Point to another one of New South Wales (NSW) iconic light houses. From the top of the lighthouse there was an epic view of the coastline,which is known to be quite dangerous due to the jagged rock faces on one side of the point and the large rocky points that stick out of the water stretching a few KM off the shore. After taking in some great sun at Seals Rocks we headed about another hour south to find a spot for our last night of camping. We had arbitrarily picked a spot called Hawk's Nest to call home for the night because it would only be a few hours drive to Sydney the next morning. It turned out to be one of our favorite spots along the coast. It was a completely secluded beach hidden behind these massive sand dunes. When you climbed up on the sand dunes you got a great view of the Ocean to your left and the river to your right - perfect spot to spend our last night camping.

Looking down over Seals Rocks

Walking path up to Sugarloaf point

Sunset in Bonny Hills

Sand Dunes at Hawk's Nest

After taking in 1 final sunrise and a morning swim/shower we hit the road for the last leg of our journey to Sydney where we would be staying with good friends of ours, Kiera and Dave, who were my old roomies in Uni. After a quick stop at Kiera and Dave's to drop off our stuff and take a real shower for the first time in 4 days we headed into the van for the last time to take it to the rental return place. I am definitely going to miss our little "home".....perhaps we should consider a "van down by the lake" as our new home in Toronto...thoughts?


OOO_Talia

First Updates From the Land Down Under

I'll start off by saying.. sorry. It has been a long time since our last blog. Think about it like this.. as our dear friends and family (even the odd acquaintance and complete stranger that peruses the blog), would you rather us be cooped up during (during the day or night) writing about our times?


Another way to think about it..... Last time I was in Australia for 3 months, I wrote 3 blogs... If you even out our 1 month plan this time around compared to our 3 month plan last time... we are about even with this 1 blog. That being said.... here is what we have been up to since leaving South America.


So................................ we have been...................... doing a lot of................................ yah....


Based on the 2 weeks we have been in AUS, I can say in confidence that it has been fun and relaxing. One other thing that I have become aware of... NOT A THING HAS CHANGED.. it might be a little more hipster in some spots.. but what city isn't. This might sound very simplistic compared to South America... but let me explain.


I will start by reiterating that South America was absolutely epic... read our last blog for reference because I don't want to repeat myself. Reflecting back on South America; where everyday was a constant struggle, AUS has given us the gift of all english (kinda, in an aussie sort of way) all the time, first-world living, great surf, beach and landscapes. After 2 months of broken english  conversations and charades (try and think about what it would be like to tell someone who barely even speaks his own language, Portuguese, that you need toilet paper), unrecognizable food (at least to our digestive systems - this affected some more than others, and don't get me wrong, was delicious), and the standard third-world "inconveniences" (although they were amazing to experience) - we have traded (some would say up and some would say down) to an Australian way of life. The best way to ring in a true aussie experience is to start with touring the coast.


We kicked it off with an epic reunion with the OG (original gypsy), Keith Addy in Coolum Beach (20 minutes south of Noosa Heads and 2 hrs North of Brisbane). Its amazing getting back together with great friends after seeing each other so sporadically over the last 5+ years. Needless to say, two of the people who raved havoc in Ottawa for 3+ years haven't missed a beat. Within 2hrs of settling in at Keith's, we were in the surf. In the surf can be taken directly because I spent the afternoon getting dish-washered in waves I had no business being in.

Reunited with the OG (original Gypsy)

Super happy to be reunited

The next couple days looked a lot like that.... One day our chests were too bruised to surf so we had an epic little hike down the Noosa Heads National Park coast... Maybe we found an isolated nudie beach?? just saying. I will leave it to you to guess whether or not we joined the action.

Beautiful Noosa Heads... Also our first surfing spot

Tea Trees in Noosa national park

Enjoying the secluded Alexander Bay Beach in Noosa

Hell's Gate point in Noosa National park

From there... the word cheeky was basically tattooed into our daily vocabulary.. here is why.. Let me give it away by describing cheeky monkeys in 2008. The only bar in Byron Bay to serve shots, unofficially reserved for backpackers and has no dance floor.. ONLY DANCE TABLES. LAVA...... This was the fuel behind our weekend trip to Byron Bay. Me, Tals and Keith were stoked on the surf, sun, beach, landscape, etc.... all stemming from our anticipation for Cheeky Monkeys. Much like the rest of Australia... nothing changed.. including the music (Ja Rule was playing all over the strip). Needless to say, we left after a few table dances (literally) and spent the rest of the night in various 19 year old dominated clubs.

Getting cheeky on our warm up pre-cheeky monkeys

Continuing around the 19 year old bars

Beautiful Byron Bay

Hitting the Surf in Byron

After a few more groundhog days, a wicked sunset from the top of Cape Byron Keith headed for Melbs and Tals and I were off to pick up our epic rapist van turned camper to begin our drive down the coast.

Sun setting over Bryon

Epic sun sets

I hope this blog has satisfied what you have been missing. it has for me.


OOO-Jonny

Travelling the wrong direction around the world

Given that we are on a travelers shoestring budget we don’t always have the luxury of selecting the best flights, the number one factor in our flight selection decisions always has to be price. Given that, when we were searching for flights to get us from South America to Australia a few months back, when we stumbled upon one-way flight that was also half the price of all the other flights we were looked at we jumped on it!..... Only problem was that it was going to take us 3 days to get to Oz and this flight literally was taking us the wrong way around the world to get there - Sao Paulo to London, London to Singapore, Singapore to Brisbane....uggggh. But hey, a deal is a deal wherever you can find them. 


After coming off our first ~12 hour flight we were in London Heathrow, since we had a 13 hour layover in London we decided that we would make a day of it and go into the city. We had already made plans to meet up with a friend of our who had moved to London just two weeks earlier and he planned a Ferris Buellers day-off like itinerary for us for the day. After a quick change in the bathroom and clearing UK customs we headed to the arrivals terminal and were greeted with a warm welcome from Scotty, our friend who had just moved to town, complete with home made sign looking for those with a PMA (positive mental attitude) and pints. After hugs and hellos we sat down and cracked our first round of pints for the day (the first of many, many pints), right there in the Heathrow arrivals hall. The rest of the day went a little something like this: 

• Hop on the tube and get off at Piccadilly Circus, immediately find pub and have a traditional English breakfast
• Our intention was to then get on the 2hour bus tour around the city but we spent too long at breakie and quickly decided it would cut into our pub crawl time so we hopped in a cab and ask the cabbie to take us to East London but take the long way an show us the top sites along the way
• Cabbie takes us on 30min tour around the city to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye and St. Pauls  Cathedral – we hopped out once to take some quick shots
• Scotty asks cabbie to take us to Griffen’s pub, apparently there are two Griffen's in town and cabbie thinks we mean the one that is a strip club.
• After nearly arriving at Griffen’s (the strip club) we finally realize that he thinks we are going to a different place after some confusing conversation about why the ladies are going there and him telling us to make sure we have lots of 1 pound coins – we quickly change course and head to the Griffen's PUB in Shoreditch.
• Griffen's pub is still closed so we hit the hipster hotspot next door called Book Store and we have pints and ciders
• Move back over to Griffen’s after it has opened and we continue on the pints, Jonny’s two Brit friends that he met in Oz, Harry and Frazer, join in on the action
• We spend the next 5 hours pub crawling through Shoreditch and Bricklane, many pints, ciders and shots are consumed, the first and second “warning, you need to head back to the airport NOW” alarms that I set on my watch goes off……. We continue pinting 
• Friends convince us that we can’t leave London with proper fish and chips so we go next door for fish and chips….. finally 6:30 rolls around and we realize that we have less than 2 hours to get to Heathrow airport and onto our flight 
• We begin sprint #1to Liverpool station and hop on the first tube – the ride takes 1hr 15mins
• Get off at Heathrow at 7:50pm for our 8:30pm flight whilst still needing to clear customs, clear security and find out gate......we quickly start sprint #2
• After cutting into a few lines (made up some sob story about getting on the wrong tube) and a full on sprint to our gate we make it onto to the flight JUST as the gate is about to close

Team power tourist at Buckingham Palace

Going past Big Ben

Winding around Westminster Abbey

Looking at the London Eye

Jonny Reunited with Harry and Frazer

It was an epic day and amazing feat that we actually did make out flight. Needless to getting some sleep on the next leg of our flight was not an issue. After another 2 very long legs, 12 hours and 8 hours respectively, we are now relaxing in Coolum Beach Australia where we have reunited with a good friend from University. It feels great to be back in the sun again!! 

OOO_Talia

South America ....... The Finale

South America has been action packed and we knew that going in. Typically to really get a feel for a place, city, culture, etc... my opinion would suggest you have to spend some real time there.. not just a few days... That said, you cant live everywhere for year. Unless you do. In which case you are really living life to its fullest.


South America offered a little of everything we were looking for coming out of this trip;

• Cultural perspective (as much as we could with our limited time)
• Adventure
• Pushing ourselves further than we thought we could go
• Exploring the unknown
• Fun, love and a strong sense of togetherness.

Our trip is 1/5 over. I don't know what the next leg holds (potentially some goon, surf, BBQs, bronzing, visiting old friends and more gentles) but if the first 2 months are any sign of whats to come, I cant wait to see what happens.


On to the next one.

Waiting for our flight out of Sao Paulo

Lots of love from the other end of the world.
OOO_JZ and Tals

Adventures in Paraty

The next morning we grabbed the 10am ferry from the island back to the main land to a town called Angra Dos Rios where we would get a bus to take us the 2hour ride to Paraty. Paraty is another beach town a little further south that had come highly recommended as a place to visit by a few American girls we had met back in Peru. It is famous for being home to about 50+ beaches in the surrounding area and for the charming and picturesque setting of the "Old Town" section of the city that has been preserved from the colonial time, uneven cobble stones and all.

The Charming Cobblestone streets in Old Town

The river canal headed into the Ocean

Once arriving in Angra dos Rios we set out on foot to the bust station until another traveler informed us that it was about a 30min walk - Not with our packs it is not, so instead we grabbed a cab and took the 5min ride instead. We were under the impression that there was a bus company there that had tickets to Paraty but it seemed that even though they still advertising them in the station they were no longer running that route so we needed to take the city bus from that station. We waited for a few buses to come and go that were all full and finally after seeing 2 buses go by we decided that we were going to squeeze in the 3rd even though it was standing room only. So gear and all we inched our way onto the bus and grabbed standing positions for the 2 hour ride. Luckily for us the bus started to clear out about half way through so we were able to get seats for the last hour. 

We had not booked any accommodations before we arrived in Paraty so we found a guy at the bus station who worked at a hostel and we took us there, however the joint was full. He took us on a little walking tour around the town to a few other hostels that "he likes" aka that his buddies work at our own and all of there were either full or massive dumps. Kait and I then decided to head out on our own while the boys waited with our bags to check out a few of the Pousadas instead. These can usually be a bit more expensive, like up to 150 Reals - 180 Reals/ night but when 4 people share the cost it works out to being not much more that a hostel anyways. We found one that suited our needs, even had a mini pool, which was key for us since we were sweaty messes from trekking all over town. After checking in and getting settled we took off to explore the town and decide what to do for the day. Much like in Ilha Grande there is a beach right in the town where everyone stays but it is not as nice as the beaches in the surrounding areas.

Since we had loved our boat cruise in Ilha Grande so much we decided on another boat cruise for the next day. This one was a bit different, it was on a Schooner boat and was only about 5 hours long visiting 2 secluded beaches and 2 islands in Paraty Bay. I won't say that we were disappointed by the beaches in Paraty because they were stunning, but we were a bit spoiled just 2 days before from our Island tour with Giovanni in Ilha Grande, if I were going to be in that area first I would start in Paraty and then move to Ilha Grande - that would be the perfect build up to finding paradise on earth.

Pulling up on the first of the Beautiful beaches of the day

What our boat looked like for the day

A private home on one of the islands

Enjoying our time on the boat

Panoramic view of 2nd beach for the day

After returning back to the docks in Paraty Jonny and I walked around the old town a little more and then went to check out the local beach before heading back to the Pousada. Kait wasn't feeling well that evening so she stayed back while the remaining 3 of us headed out to dinner in Old Town. We ended up at this great pizza spot that had an amazing quinoa salad, wood-fire oven pizzas and live music.  We discussed plans for the next day and it sounded like J.J and Kait were going to take a kayak tour around the bay and Jonny and I were going to head out to another beach nearby on the bus. Unfortunately all these plans came to a screeching halt through the night as it seemed whatever bug what started to affect Kait that day had then spread to me too. I will leave out the gory details but we took turns bring back up all the delicious meals we had that day. The next day I could not even get out of bed, just impossible so we stayed in all day. Jonny and I decided that we would head to Sao Paulo a day early since it didn’t look like we were going to get in any more beach time in my condition and he needed to find a place to get his tickets taken out as they were already a day overdue. After spending the entire day in bed I was able to drag my butt the 5 min walk to the bus station, poor Jonny had to carry ALL of our gear the whole way, and I settled in for the 6 hour bus ride with a couple gravols to help me make it. We made it to Sao Paulo without incident and I unfortunately had to spend the next day in bed all day again before I started to feel human again. 

OOO_Talia