Jakey Jake

So we hung around rio for a few days before heading on to Sao Paulo . We had heard Sao Paulo was really dangerous, so we didn’t venture out much and we only stayed for one day, had a quick look around, before heading on to Foz. Adam hadn’t seen Iquacu falls yet so I went back there with him. This time we stayed at a hostel near the falls called Paudimar. It was more like a resort with basic accommodation. Luckily it had a pool as it was around 40 every day, which made it really uncomfortable to sleep. We went to the brazilian side of iguacu which was brilliant again. Adam was amazed and happy that we had actually seen something decent. Back at the hostel we met a really great guy called lochie from west walls end in Newcastle . He had been in brazil for 3 months and could speak portugeuse and he was good at capoera(brasilian martial art) as well. So we mucked around with him for a while and hung out at the bar. The next day we decided to go to the argentinian side of the falls, and I have to say that this is the best side to experience the falls as there you get right in amongst them. Theres a walkway right up to the most massive section of the falls, which is mind blowing. So we spent the day walking around and checking out the falls, we also went on a boat ride under the falls, which was one of the best experiences. The boat went right in and it was suddenly 2 feet deep with water and we were drenched…. Incredible. But adams phone got wet and its now stuffed. The next day we decided to venture over to Paraguay , its all about stamps on the passport J we made it over there and it was a total shit hole, needless to say we didn’t stay long. So we went back and vegetated at the hostel. The next day we managed to get utterly lost and spent 5 hours on 2 busses trying to get to the rhodiviera to get a ticket to Florianopolis . We went from one side of town to the other and back again. So we decided to jump a cab after that…. And we finally ended up with ticket J so we were off to Florianopolis .

OMG whatever you do do not catch a bus for 33hours in brazil with a broken air conditioner when the outside temperatures are around 35 degrees. We wanted to die. Not only were we bored out of our brains but we were boiling hot as well. The only fresh air we had was from the two square holes in the roof of the bus. So we arrived at the bus station and we needed to find some accommodation. The others that we met on the bus decided to find a hostel in the city, but we decided to head on out to the beach, which was about 10 minutes out of the city center. We were expecting a BIG party (although we didn’t really need it) but when we went for a walk along the beach all the tents and stalls and stages were being pulled down. Needless to say all the stories of the most rocking party in south America was a let down. We made friends with John and Craig from Sydney who were also in our room and we all decided to head out together. We took a cab into Pelourinho which is the bar area and where we were told there would be a great party as part of carnival. Unfortunately ive had better parties on my own….. so we decided to head back to the hostel. That’s when all the trouble started. We met AJ, a sweed, Fabio, a local, Ivan from Geelong , and Luis, a Peruvian that spoke about 5 languages and lived in Sweden . From there on in it was party time in the hostel. 4 days with virtually no sleep. That day we went to the beach and we met a bunch of locals and some cute girls that the guys were hitting on. So John and I started playing coconut throw in the sea which was awesome fun. Fabio whipped up a storm in the kitchen, but on the 3 rd day we decided that we would leave because the partying was killing us. So we checked out and headed to the rhodiviera (bus station) , unfortunately the bus that was leaving that day was full so we bought a ticket for the following day, and looked for accommodation close to the rhodiviera so we didn’t go back to the hostel for another party. Well the tourist info place recommended a hotel close by so we got the cab there, for some reason the receptionists were laughing at us checking in. We quickly learned why. This was a LOVE hotel. There are many of these in brazil as its often the only place people can get privacy for a good time, and they usually go by the hour. The phone was wrapped in a plastic bag, there was a plastic rose and some condoms and the only thing on TV was 4 channels of porn. The mattresses were covered in vinyl for easy cleaning. It took us about 20 minutes before we decided to get out of there and return to the hostel, and we were back on for a party. We managed to leave the next day and we arrived at Rio for round 2, this time with Ivan. He was a very patriotic Croatian, and everything seemed to go back to cars or croatia , but he was a really good guy, who had his passport stolen on the bus ride to rio