Rio de Janiero - The January River

Hi All!
So unfortunately I haven't been updating this blog nearly as much as I wanted to. It was over a week ago that I made my last post and I am only here for 3 weeks so that is a pretty bad ratio. The hotel in Paraty (where I was last week) had very bad internet so it was quite hard for me to get on my computer. Now we are in Rio and my hotel has free wireless in the lobby so I am taking advantage of that.

So... We spent a week in Paraty. It is a 4 hour drive South of Rio, in between Rio and Sao Paolo. It was a really cute small town with awesome architecture. It has a lot of history too. It became famous because it has a port and became the place through which all of the gold and diamonds discovered in the mountains traveled through to get to Rio de Janiero. Millions of slaves carried the gold and diamonds through Paraty to bring it to Rio. We went on a hike through the trail that they took which is called the Gold Road. It was really cool to see.

The city has a beautiful main area called the historical center which has all of the original stone walkways from 300+ years ago. Once I am able to post the pictures you will be able to see all of it. Paraty is called "Little Venice" because when the tide is high it floods and becomes a water city where they have to travel around by boats. I only saw it with about 6 inches of water in parts of it that were close to the water, but we were able to walk around it so i didn't need a boat.

On our hike of the Gold Road we also got to go sliding down natural water slides! It was a massive rock with a waterfall running down it that went into a river. We hiked up the side of it and then slid down the rock into the river. The water was freezing but it was a really hot day so you didnt stay cold for long. I did it twice! It was so fun, but my bathing suit got so dirty from the rock. It was worth it though.

On Saturday, we took a 4 hour bus ride back to Rio de Janiero, which means the January River. When Rio was discovered the Portuguese thought that it was on a river (which is actually a bay) and it was in the month of Janurary. Clever huh? ha not really but it sounds pretty to non-portuguese speaking people. We have class every morning from 9-1 and then we either have field trips in the afternoon, or sometimes down time. Today we had class and then took a city tour.

I am going to go for now but I promise to update this more often now that I have good internet Access! Brazil is great! I just wish that I spoke portuguese! getting around is not too bad, and my spanish has come in handy a couple of times!

Love you All!
Kelly