The following post is pasted from an e-mail I just finished writing one of my friends detailing my new year's eve trip to Paraty, a tiny historic town on the beach near gorgeous islands in Rio de Janeiro.
It was comedic/depressing/fun/unbelievable. It's a long post with the whole play by play, but worth it for the laugh (no, I don't want your pity I need you to laugh at our days there, lol). I'll post our pictures soon once I get them all!
I've heard that when everything goes wrong, it means goods things are to come your way... so happy 2010 to the "Fim de Ano de Índio," crew. :-)
---------------
So my "crazy" new year was more bad crazy than good crazy, lol. i can't say it was the worst, a.) because i haven't laughed this much in so long and b.) because a lot of really terrible things went on kind of near where i was. I don't know if you heard, but on an island off the coast of Rio and the closest city had so much rain that there were a lot of landslides and something like 50 people died... on New Year's Eve =/.
But now that I have you anxious to hear about what happened with us, here goes:
We made plans to leave Wednesday morning at "6 or 7." After Fábio picked myself, Paty, and Paulo up, we were hitting the road and São Paulo at around 9ish. The car ride was normal, we wanted to get there before lunch because apparently it was raining during the afternoon - some of our friends had gotten there earlier. We made it in a record 4 hour, not hitting any traffic, and since we're SO experienced in building tents, we did it wonderfully with the help of one of the camp site's employees - this really helpful 17 year old who looks 12, lol. Our friends were at a beach a little ways away, so we decide to rest for a little and then it starts to rain - I crawl into our tent and it's already wet inside, but Paulo brought a super intense tent, so we hung out in his then you know how I get when I'm hungry... we went in search of food. We wound up at this restaurant on the beach (still raining) and are served by this waiter who kept complaining about how the service in Paraty is SO SLOW. He's from São Paulo and has only been there a month. Needless to say - entertaining.
The rest of the characters were already back at the camp site when we got there: Kelli (funniest person I know), her boyfriend Raphael (a tuba player and in the military), his mother Renata (cuhRAZY), and her friend Monica (quiet Japanese lady). It's still raining, so we just hang out a bit, take showers, and then eat some more. Raphael cooked for us the whole time!! I told him he needs to give Fábio lessons. That night, we went to a bar nearby for drinks. At night, I was exhausted and went to bed early. Most everyone else stayed up drinking and smoking hookah.
I go to the tent and it was SOAKED. We had bought tarp and everything and it looked SO GHETTO, but it was funny nonetheless. I found the driest sliver of air mattress and grabbed Fabio's pillow (mine was soaked, lol), and slept. Then Fábio came to the tent and I got up to go to the bathroom, when I get back he had put our super humid comforter as a sheet and used our semi-dry sheet as our cover. Thank GOD I was so tired. In the morning, I woke up, turned to one side of the tent and wanted to cry. It hadn't stopped RAINING. So Fábio goes, last night, Mara (this woman who we made friends with and who rented out a room at the B&B where the camp site was) told me that we could put the tent on her porch which was covered. So we did. We took out the mattress to "dry," and then decided to go into town to go to a laundromat and have our stuff washed and dried. We ended up going to a little café for most of the afternoon "until the rain passed" then went to the town's cute historic downtown area... but the rain hadn't passed. We bought ponchos.
When we got back to the camp site, the rain had passed and we had DRY SHEETS. So we decided we were going to head to the beach at like, 10:30 and bring all our drinks to pop champagne on the beach at midnight! And then it started to rain... So last minute we decide to stay at the B&B and had our own little party on the terrace. Renata and Mara went out and begged this pizzaria to give them their last pizzas and we had tons of fun with the terrace to ourselves just drinking and goofing around.
We wake up the next morning *dry* and it's still raining. Fabio goes, "Want to go home today?" And I was said no problem. I was seriously starting to get dpressed wiht all the rain. Honestly, it wasn't even drizzle. It was all out heavy ass RAIN. Everyone else got up a little later and wanted to get food, so we decide to head into town for everyone else to get food and for us to see the best way home because we'd heard a bunch of routes were blocked because of the rain. On our way, we hit this long stretch of a road filled with huge puddles of water. We soon found out they were more like, ponds... Fabio's car simply turns off midway, we open the doors and there's oil on top of the water. He puts the car in neutral, we get out and push the car to a drier area (all the while, the oil's spilling). I don't know what to say/do. Our friends made it over the friggin pond, and we walk towards them. Paty and I take our shoes off and wade through, haha. As soon as we get to where they were, their car was shot too but some guy helped them and fixed it, and there are two other cars stopped. It was a HOT MESS. This little dam had been exploded because they needed water to go through so as to not flood the street. And some guy who was helping people out said, "This rain is literally killing people. A bed and breakfast was buried by a landslide in Ilha Grande." At this point, Fabio gets there and I go, "Everything's going to be okay. At least we're all okay." And he just nods.
No joke, he was SO patient and calm, and I don't know what I would have done in his position. We walked to a nearby café and from there he tried getting a hold of his insurance. He didn't, so he's like, "Let's just eat, I'll call later." And then he was making jokes and being himself. I think I was more worried about the car than he was! But then he calmly got in touch with his insurance, and the tow was going to pick up his car in the afternoon and he asked for a taxi (his insurance doesn't cover a rental, but covers a taxi which is more expensive - weird). Anyway, we head back to the camp site (Mara gave us a ride) and the sun comes out!!! We quickly get into our bikinis and run to the beach. We wanted to get kayaks to go to a nearby island, but they were all booked =/ boo. Fabio is able to schedule our cab at 10 that night and the tow was supposed to come earlier - he said he would go with the tow truck because nobody was home to take his car in to the garage and we (myself, Paty and Paulo) would take the cab . By the time we left the tow truck still hadn't gotten there but on our way, Fabio calls and says the tow truck's NOT going to take him to São Paulo.
My part ends here, but the rest of the gang's weekend was pretty much - the sun comes out Saturday, they go to the beach and a nearby waterfall/spring. Then they try to head back to SP buy get stuck in massive traffic. They stop in the next town over, Ubatuba, and decide to stay at a hotel and leave Sunday morning. Sunday the traffic's even WORSE. Because of all the rain, bridges were flooded, landslides had blocked major highways - it was a mess. They ended up getting back Monday afternoon because they slept in Ubatuba again!!
*sigh* Happy 2010!
