From the clutches of canine hostility to the coarse, velvateen mud bath beyond the fork in the road where the water just rolls on down.

Woke to a simple breakfast in a large room with too much echo. Josh and I walked around Paraty a bit. We headed through the old town again, this time a bit farther than the night before. We made it to the water's edge and then back towards our hostel. We walked to the bus station, saw that we had time for lunch, and went for lunch. We got out pratu feito on. Good fish dish, over a backgammon game, and then off to the station. We got on our bus and headed towards the mountains just outside of town. There were waterfalls up this way, and we were determined to find the one that is off the beaten path.

It was an overcast day and it had been raining on and off. We got off of the bus just after a bridge we were looking for. This muddy road was to take us into the jungle for a while. We had a smoke. The mud forced its way up between my toes as I walked bare foot on this lonesome road. A drunk man followed us for a while, barely able to walk straight. A couple of times it looked as though he was going to march straight off of the mountain. We came to his road and he invited us to his house so we could get out of the rain and drink with him. We thanked him and traveled on. There was the occasional dog party that wasn't happy to see us. We started walking with stones. My blue flip flops were a good defense from the clutches of rural dog chompers, but stones seemed to make us feel a bit better.

There was a sign for a small pool Josh had heard about, so we took this simple jungle path on our right. We nearly passed it the sign was so small. This path would criss cross over a stream and under wire fences and random pipes through the jungle. We found the pool and it was angelic. We could not get any wetter, so we shed our layers and we went skinny dipping. It was not the warmest pool, especially since the sun was not out. We perched half in the water on rocks near the edge of the pool. The feeling of sitting naked in a jungle pool while the rain comes down on my skin is something to remember. I could look up and see the rain drops coming right for me. The sound of water falls and rain drops is trance-like. It was cold, so we didn't stay in the water for too long. We put our wet clothes back on and headed back to the muddy road. Once there, we headed even farther away from the main road we were let out on.

There were beautiful green fields hugging at the mountain sides. Streams of clouds clung to the tops of these hill sides and mountain tops. The rain would let up and let out, on and off. We took shelter under an abandoned shack to smoke a bit and to play gammon while we dried off. We were just going to get wet again, but there was the prospect of getting warm for a little while. The rain had considerably let up again by the time we were ready to head out into it. We kept walking and questioned how far we were willing to walk before we would head back. Soon after deciding to turn back after 4 or 5 more curves in the road, we came to a fork that went up and down. We chose down and the water falls were one curve farther ahead. It was really nice and peaceful there. The falls were more like a slowly running river with big rocks, opposed to the water falls one will find in North Carolina or Chiapas, Mexico where they are more vertical than horizontal. The mud here was a play ground for my toes. I still walked barefoot, and this was a series of good moments. The mud was coarse yet soft, and how peculiar one might say. "How peculiar!"

We walked around a bit before our party headed back to the base camp. There was no desire to miss the last of the buses thus possibly getting stuck out in the sticks for the night. With stones in hand to battle the fangs of the aggressive song dogs, we passed them by like ships in the night and reached the main road without complications. Freakin' dog smokers.

There was a grocery where we took shelter out front on the steps. Josh bought some beers and a candy or two. Gammon. Then I bought some fixins for ham and cheese sandwiches. Two each and another beer before we got on the bus heading home. Instead of a bus, we took a collectivo to a parking lot off of the main road. We couldn't wait to get back for a shower and a chance to get warm. This we did.

A group of hostel folks made some spaghetti and meat sauce, and I was invited to join. The group was comprised of a German, two Argentinians, a Costa Rican and his German girlfriend, and a Brazilian who worked at the hostel. Beers and food, what a good combination. I spent some time digesting on the computer downstairs, while Josh was up in our room watching a movie on his computer the whole night. Sleep is my friend.