Just Another Day In Paradise

Brazil day 2
11-20-15

Today I woke up to the noise of mom trying to get out of the room. I opened my eyes and saw an absolutely AMAZING view out the window, then looked over at mom and she said to me, “I cant get out” apparently she was locked in. Don’t worry we got out of the room and spent a BEAUTIFUL morning enjoying breakfast with an incredible view of the ocean and palm trees. We ate fresh mangos that had dropped from the tree next to the hostel and we walked down to the beach. It was a little bit rainy this morning – but even with the weather being overcast and short spurts of rain showers we enjoyed our morning at the Happy Hammock!

We decided to head back into town on the morning boat so that we could walk around the old town before we headed off to our next destination. It was a very short but VERY SWEET stay in this beautiful place!

The boat ride back into town was really fun – since we came in after sunset yesterday, and couldn’t see the views, it was all new scenery for us!

There were a lot of boats docked waiting for people to come for tours. I loved the boats! They are so cute and colorful and I could picture a fun and upbeat boat tour with friends and music, or a romantic ride around the islands with a significant other, or a family vacation. So many boats, so many possibilities! I need to get some photos up so you can see this!

The old town is so beautiful! It is a very touristy area with many little shops and bars and restaurants. All of the buildings are white with different color doors and window frames. It really is beautiful! Also this old part of town is all on foot! The roads are blocked off to cars!

Mom and I walked around for a while and wandered in and out of shops. We stopped at a little bakery and got some cheese bread and 2 empanada type foods (one chicken and one beef) to try and share. They were very good!

I was speaking to the woman that worked at the bakery. And by speaking I mean I was attempting to communicate with her through broken Spanish. But I was able to figure out what she was saying in Portuguese and tell her what I wanted in Spanish! My mom said to me, “I am so glad that you know Spanish!”

Me too! So thank you Adam and Antonio and all of the people in Spain who helped me to start to learn Spanish. And thank you to those people who still help me practice (which I should do more often!) Spanish and Portuguese are very different – but there is enough cross over that I am at least not completely clueless! Haha


So As I sit here this conversation just happened:

Mom: What are you doing now?

Kristy: typing about today

Mom: well tell Jen, cause she is the only one who reads your blog, that I got a hammock today.

Kristy: *gasp! Why do you think that no one reads my blog?! …rude! 

I am guessing that she thinks that because in my past travels she would read my blogs – and she probably thinks that they were specifically just to her, so now of course there is no one else to read except for my best friend. But this assumption is WRONG! This blog is ACTUALLY meant for me!

And if there is anyone else that comes along for the ride- AWSOME and Welcome!

I am so glad that you are here! Even if it is in secret and I don’t know that you are reading this right now. Haha


Lets see…. Where were we…. oh yeah ... HAMMOCK!

Jen! mom wants you to know that she bought a hammock today! She got it right after I was talking about how much I love them and want one! So when I go visit home I will just claim it as mine! This sounds like a good plan!

After enjoying the town of Paraty for a while we went back to the car, found a gas station to fill up on gas and then drove 3 hours to our next destination: Mangaratiba!

The drive was really beautiful – it sprinkled a little bit- but not bad at all! We stopped along the way and got some bananas and a pineapple from a fruit cart, and we also stopped a couple times to get out of the car and see the beautiful views!

We arrived in Mangaratiba the parking fairy found us an amazing spot. (if you don’t know about the parking fairy then we are not good enough friends and you need to know about the Kadish family and the parking fairy) and found our hostel.

We are literally ½ a block away from the beach! Its an amazing location! And I was pleasantly surprised at the location and look of the hostel.

I loved the concept of the eco-friendly hostel that we were at last night – but I also like electricity and wifi! #callmespoiled

I really don’t mind being disconnected – but I like that I can come home at night and re-connect and text friend’s and family, post an update on facebook and share a blog post! Besides it is more likely that these blog posts get done if I do them along the way!

[That is one reason I never posted about China, which is a SHAME and I need to make up for is somehow! (even though it was a year ago!) but the internet was SO restricted over there I couldn’t do blog posts along the way- and then time passed and it sadly never happened.]

After we checked into our hostel we walked along the beach. The sun even came out for a while! Which was so nice!

It is hot here- for mom at least. I think that the weather is absolutely perfect! Mom on the other hand is NOT used to humidity AT ALL! So I have NYC to thank for acclimating me to being comfortable living in mild humidity! Cause it has been pretty mild here so far!

It is such a crazy thing that here in Brazil we are at the beginning of summer right now and in the US we are just starting winter. UGH! Winter! I am SO OVER winter already! So HAPPY to be here in the warmth!

One of my favorite things that we saw today was a group of men playing Futbol-Volleyball! 2 verse 2 – the game was all the rules of volleyball except for played with a futbol (soccer ball) and all futbol ball handling rules are applied! Meaning no hands allowed. It was fun to watch! I took a little video too that I will have to get up soon!

What else- we found a little restaurant to have dinner. We ate fries, rice, and stake. All Brazilian style. It was good!

After dinner we came back to the hostel to cool down and then went out for some icecream and people watching back at the beach.

It was a great day! We head to Rio Tomorrow! I am excited for the next steps of our adventure!

OH! Also tonight mom triumphantly said, “I FOUND IT!” and pulled the missing GPS out of her backpack. Haha… she makes me laugh. Luckily we have been getting along well without it. 

Disclaimer:

I did not proof read this- so I am sure there are errors and mistakes and etc. but oh well, I am tired- its time for bed!