Costs pp: bus Parati to Ubatuba 5rs, bus to Caraguatatuba 5.10rs, bus to Sao Sebastiao 2.95rs. Direct bus Parati to Sao Sebastiao 28rs. Clean room with ensuite and tv at Hotel CIX 109 Rua Maranhao 2 blocks from the rodoviaria 60rs 2 ppl includes breakfast.
Bus SS to Maresias 3.50rs, cute apartment with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen/dining 80rs 2 ppl.
We headed to San Sebastian because it looked interesting and travelled on local buses to get there because the direct bus was full luckily, the local buses were very easy to use and cost half the price.
San Sebastian is a small town on a nob of land opposite Ilha Bella an island. The island is fairly long and this creates a channel between it and the mainland and the wind likes to breeze through there. That made it wonderful for us and much more comfortable. There were 2 cruise ships docked over by the island when we arrived but we didn't see boatloads of passengers like we did in Punta del Este in Uruguay.
We spent two days in San Sebastian although it only deserves one really but Carol now came down with the diahorrea Kent had had so no energy. There was a fair at the seafront and in the evening on Sunday we walked downtown with everyone else and meandered along through the openair cafes, it was very nice until the rain started and didn't stop, pretty much cancelled the evening. We looked for WiFi and again had no luck, Brazil is definitely not up to speed in this area. Even a cafe that said it was a WiFi zone had actually no connection.
We had the address of 2 youth hostels in some bays further down the
coast so decided to head there thinking that they at least would have a
cheaper dorm option. The pousadas here are pretty expensive. The first bay we stopped at was Maresias and Carol went looking for the hostel but found it full and when they rang the second one in Boicucanga it too was full. After a small hunt through expensive looking pousadas she found a small apartment for the night just half a dozen places away from the YHI hostel. The staff at the YHI hostel can't be praised enough they were so helpful to us with all the info we needed and let us use their WiFi for free any time.
Carol fell in love with this bay and spent the day laying on the beach and hopping in and out of the water. Kent spent the day at the apartment watching tv and organising a backup of our files on the netbook. Food here is pretty expensive to buy, there is no supermarket so we had to get stuff at the shop to cook in our kitchen but still cheaper than eating out and not much street food here. Again in the evening it rained so cancelled any walking about the place. We spent the evening at the YHI.
Next stop Santos.
