Liz Makes It Rain

Just been to a nice little colonial town called Paraty (cobbled streets, 18th century churches, abundance of donkeys, etc). What sets this little colonial town apart however, are the 65 islands and 300 or so beaches that lie within an easy bus/boat ride from the centre. To see at least a small portion of these we decided to book ourselves onto a 5 hour schooner tour around the islands, with stop offs for snorkling, sunbathing and the like. The night before the tour was scheduled, I casually mentioned to Liz that we could always cancel if it was pouring with rain or something. She replied: "I don't think that's going to happen", then compounded her error by adding, "It hasn't rained for ages".

In the manner of these things, the next morning began wonderfully hot and sunny - no cancellations necessary. Fate even gave us the first hour of the tour in brilliant sunshine and allowed us a bit of snorkling, lulling us into complacency with clear waters and a large shoal of sergeant fish. Soon as we got to a beach ... torrential rain, thunder, lightning, bone chilling wind. Entirely Liz's fault I think you'll all agree.

Fortunately the rest of time we were there the weather was perfect, and we were able to check out a few beaches in non-English weather.

We also had a look at a natural water slide a short bus ride away. This is where a local river runs over a collection of very smooth, slippery, algae covered rocks. It is possible to hurtle down these rocks on your back/bum/face and end up relatively unhurt in the plunge pool below. Lacking courage, we watched a local do it first - who was able to "surf" over the rocks before jumping up and flipping into the pool at the end. Very impressive. Our efforts were slightly less graceful as the following pictures show ...