Babylon By Bus

Day One

To local beach Trindade by bus.

Easter weekend in Paraty and the tourists flocked in, hostel prices doubled, the bus was rammed full of whooping revellers and the narrow, twisting road to the beach was jammed solid.

We got off early and walked down to the beach for a pleasant few hours observing some outstanding thongs and bottoms.

Not sure how body-conscious Brazilians are, but they're not bothered about the buttock-to-fabric ratio (8:1 rough average), that's for sure.

When we left for home that evening it turned out we hadn't got as far as Trindade, and had been sitting on Pilha beach all day.

Every bus was frustratingly going straight past, full of people returning from Trindade, so we had to make a scene with a Trindade-bound bus conductor, who allowed us to get on 'til the end of the line, where the bus immediately filled up again, but took us home accompanied by more whooping, laughing, singing and tambourine-banging daytrippers, very relieved not to be stranded on the beach after hours.

Day Two.

We made it to Trindade first time. The town itself is a pleasant little tourist trap, clearly confusing itself with Jamaica.

Bob Marley, reggae, white rastas, red, gold and green proliferate, along with dreamcatchers and tie-dye galore.

The beaches were outstanding. Long and clean with fine, squeaky sand, a couple of little jungly trails taking us between each one, ending with a huge natural rock pool.

After Kim took a quick dip we jumped in a conveniently-arrived taxi boat which took us back to town.