Heading south

First day on new truck was a short one, a chance to chat and start to get to know the new group of people I am travelling with. End of a short day for day 1 and we are camped across the road from a beach. Very hot and humid, so first requirement after setting up camp is a swim in the sea to try and cool down. Throw myself in to find that the water is hotter than most of the showers we have found in South America so far! Soon find out the reason as well: decide to try and swim to deeper water to see if it is colder there. After a few hundred metres find that I can still stand up - the water hasn´t got any deeper since the 1st 10 metres or so from the beach. Apparently you can walk all the way to an island that must be over 1/2 km offshore.

Had another nice Birthday surprise when our driver Dan appears with a Birthday cake and a bottle of bubbly whilst we sitting chatting by the truck before going out. Can already report that it looks like the new group of passengers are just as sociable as the previous ones. Evening one is spent in the town of Paraty at a nice (if pricy) Italian restaurant. Stroll back to camp at around midnight, open the champagne and then sit of for another two and a half hours drinking, talking and enjoying Fran´s music. The majority of the group made it right the way through and there were still ten of us sitting drinking at 01:30.

Day 2 is a wonderful relaxing day. Starts noisily when a dog is barking. Sounds very close and indeed it us - unzip the fly sheet of the tent to find the dog laying against the front of my tent. Dragoman have hired a schooner to take passengers from all four trucks out onto the sea.

Plenty of time to chat, drink, and sunbathe, interspersed by numerous stops and the chance to swim. Spot some turtles at our first stop, but they are too quick for Naomi, Abi and myself to catch.

Did manage to see one closer to the boat on the way out of the bay though. Stop off at several other bays so spend a lot of time jumping off and then climbing back onboard. Didn´t do this quite as much as the Drago crew who seem to be having a day long competition to find out who can do the most ridiculous dive/jump. The way some of them hit the water was painful to watch at times.

Another night out in town on Friday and several drinks from the street vendors around one of the squares in town. Good mix of Caipirinhas, caipivodkas, and caipifrutas get drunk and back to camp well after 2am again.

Not sure I can keep up this pace of life for long!