Today I travelled from lovely little Paraty further down the south east coast of Brazil to get to my next stop - Itamambuca. Whilst originally I had planned to stay in Ubatuba itself I find myself here in Itamambuca at a hostel called Sitio Simple Life. This is a place in the middle of the jungle, a few kilometres from the town centre and beach (which I plan on going to tomorrow) surrounded by a number of various chalets targeted at surfers.
The bus from Paraty to Itamambuca was relatively simple to get, I just walked to the bus station and bought a ticket - I had to make sure to tell the bus driver (with the help of Google translate) to please drop me off at Itamambuca as the bus doesn't usually stop there. The drive itself was not without its own challenges as we stopped multiple times due to what appeared to be overheating issues, and even stopped by a waterfall to get water to refill the radiator. After reaching my stop disaster almost struck as the bus driver started driving off before I got my pack out from underneath - however I quickly let out a thunderous yell and he slammed on the brakes allowing me to retrieve it.
The hostel itself is rustic yet charming, a simple property upon which various dwellings have been constructed such - a container hostel room, multiple treehouse rooms on stilts, a geodesic dome, an gym/workshop, shower/toilet block, and a large communal space serving as the kitchen, reception, dining room, hang out area plus a few more rooms off the side. The majority of the structures here are made with materials from the land around such as rocks, trees, or mud daub, as well as re/upcycled materials such as roofing tile slabs made from old toothpaste tubes that appear to have been melted together.
Most of the people here only speak Portuguese however I have met a few of the staff that speak English, and one of the other guests here is from France and speaks English relatively well. It will be an interesting couple of days here - tomorrow I plan on going to the beach and just chilling for most of the day.