Okay don’t hate me, but I’m writing this journal entry from the relaxing hammock hanging in the front porch of our new home!

So after a full week in Rio we packed up our bags, picked up our little hire car (bit of a squeeze fitting us all in, but we did it, we will not be beaten!!!👊) and drove our way down the warm and bumpy coastal road to Paraty. 

The journey took 4 and a half hours and the scenery turned from the lush busy city to green fields with cattle to rich green jungle hills. Coconut palms, mango trees nestle by the side of the road, mixed in with areas that seemed completely taken over by the jungle vines. With every twist and turn of the bumpy road a new coastline presented itself, deep turquoise waters and coves with long golden sandy beaches, and out to sea dotted dozens of green tropical islands, begging to be explored!

We arrived at our Airbnb just inland from Paraty town and the girls jumped straight in the kiddie pool! Well it had been a long hot drive, and the owners of the house took us through a few suggestions of places of interest that they thought we’d like. So helpful especially as they have children of a similar age.

After unpacking, we decided to head to the historic centre of Paraty, a pretty area full of cobbled streets, no cars, all centred around a central square. Paraty is a gorgeous old Portuguese fishing town, with plently of history from pirates to old gold paths. The streets are covered in tropical blooms from orchids to Bougainvillea, and it has a stunning backdrop of plunging mountains covered in thick Atlantic jungle forest.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner on the square! Forgot the basic rule of eating one or two rows back to save pennies! Must be the sun, but hey it was scrummy!

We then took a walk along the pretty harbour and beach before heading to the supermarket!!! Well we needed a few bits for the morning and it was made more exciting by the constant powercuts going on in store! Queue me scrabbling around in the pitch black for the girls, who thought the whole thing was hilarious!

After finding our way out of the dark supermarket we got home to geckos climbing the walls of our gate, the familiar sound of cicadas but also some more unusual jungles sounds! Difficult to describe, but I decided to keep my shutters closed for the night!

After a good nights sleep we decided as the weather was so sunny to scrap schooling and head for the beach! 🙈bad parents!!!

We drove south for about 30 minutes to the little beach town of Trindade, armed with bucket and spade, and a borrowed surf board. A single road drives down into the little town that’s full of surf shacks, little bars and shops selling beach wears. We drove as close to the beach as possible and despite our lack of Portuguese managed to park up by a little old mans house who let us park outside and even popped some cardboard sheets on the windscreen of the car for us to block out the sun.

We walked down a narrow walkway to the beach, and boy what a beach! So different from the other beaches we’ve been on during our travels, such rich colours and so jewel like! Deep turquoise sea, golden sands, and rich green jungle! Beautiful.

We picked our spot to set up and then pretty much spent the whole day swimming in the sea, the water was just so warm! Molly spent a lot of time practicing on our borrowed surfboard, paddling about and trying to get up!

Such a lovely day, in all honesty we spent a bit too long enjoying ourselves and are now all a little rosy! But hey it was fun and we can have a non sun day tomorrow whilst we catch up on the old travel schooling!