Paraty
Topic: Brazil
The Costa Verde was described by Amerigo Vespucci as "paradise on Earth". My Brazilian friend Raquel had also mentioned the beautiful colonial town of Paraty on that coast about 4 hours from Rio so we thought we'check it out.

The bus drove along a stunningly beautiful highway - our guidebook says it is the most beautiful one in the world. Paraty is lovely. It is also very touristy. At first we thought the pale people dressed in beachwear walking around in the rain were Europeans. They were actually Brazilian - mainly from Sao Paulo.

The streets of Paraty are pretty. All the buildings in the old town are colonial, long and stable-like and mainly house expensive restaurants and shops, and art galleries. The cobble stones are huge and semi-submerged in water from the tide and the rain. People in flip flops leap from one to the other to get anywhere.

We spent a pleasant enough few days in the town but we realsied that we weren't in the right place. Mentally, I mean. We have too many things going on in our heads to be able to appreciate Paraty properly. We only have a few weeks left in South America and a lot of plans to make for moving to Japan. Every time we get ready to leave somewhere (Rio, Buenos Aires...), our minds go over not just the next step of our journey here, but the next few steps and it is becoming overwhelming. Also, Every time we stay somewhere new, we have new anxieties about money as we always have to hand over a load of cash for even the most basic hotels. What's the answer? Go somewhere for three weeks, the remainder of our time in Brazil and stay put.