Some exercise, finally The Windsor Asturias Hotel is equipped with a gym and pool on the rooftop.  I woke before 0700 and checked it out.  Both proved to be tiny.  The gym had three treadmills, a bench and some free weights.  After not having done any proper exercise, this was better than nothing and I […]

Bus ride to Rio de Janeiro Today we have a 4h40 bus ride from Paraty to Rio de Janeiro.  With a departure time of 0920, we had to wake a little earlier than usual. It’s terrible that we had come from Europe and adapted too quickly to local time and sleeping in, when I had […]

Today we take a day cruise around the bays and islands near Paraty.  We had asked around and prices varied between BRL40 to BRL50 for a trip departing 1100 and returning 1600, having 4 stops.  Boats vary in size from 120 to 160 pax capacity. We settled for the cheapest and smallest.  We made our […]

Our free walking tour in Paraty at 1030 was led by an Argentine of English ancestry.  That explained his very good English with a posh accent.  The English group was small but the one led by his Portuguese-speaking counterpart was much bigger. He gave a good history of the city, explaining how it grew because […]

I tried not to over-eat at the awesome breakfast buffet at the hotel.  We had some time to Pakill before checking out at 1045 to make our way by Uber to Sao Paulo’s Tiete bus station for our 1215 bus to Paraty. We got to the station an hour before departure, in case the station […]

For a small hotel the Calstar put on an awesome breakfast with hot and cold options, including plenty of fruit and different juices and shakes.  We timed ourselves well to get into the small breakfast room without waiting. We have a free walking tour to join at 1130 but reviewing the information last night, I […]

With all sightseeing in Blumenau done, we had nothing to do but relax between breakfast and our midday checkout.   The bus to the airport was scheduled at 1330 so we decided that it would be safe to attempt to summon an Uber around 1230 and still have the bus as a backup. Kim went to […]

After a good buffet breakfast which included some local German specialties, I went out to look for some water.  Kim needed time to get ready as he didn’t feel rested from the night’s sleep. Looking for water proved unbelievably hard.  Despite searching for “supermercardo” on Google Maps, some were non-existent, some were cosmetic supermarkets etc.  […]