Our Exodus overland begins...

We set off on Papa 5 - our Exodus truck - at 8 am on Wednesday the 21st of Feb. First destination was Paraty, some 300 km south of Rio on the Costa Verde of Brazil, apparently one of the most beautiful coastlines in South America. Paraty is described as the most pictoresque colonial town in Brasil, and the name comes from its pirate history. Very nice town indeed, lots of nice cozy shops and restaurants. We camped here for 3 nights, the first of which was a nightmare. I chose the spot for the tent in the shade - we got there at 3 pm and had to plant it under the burning sun - in the night we realised that the trees diffused a very unpleasant smell (or was it what people were doing under the trees?) and it was so bloody hot!! Then things improved and the shade was still an advantage but generally I would say that camping in Paraty was not such a great experience. The sea is absolutely HOT - must be at least 40 degrees - so when we rushed to bathe to refresh after the tent planting ordeal, we found ourselves in the hottest broth we could ever imagine!! The town however is really lovely and the first experience with the truck and the cooking took our concentration. It is 17 of us, of which 6 Irish fellows - I just cannot get rid of them, can I? Worked with a terrible one for over a year, then the owner of the guesthouse in Rio was Irish, and now a third of the team!!! Well OK, I admit they are all very nice...
We have a nurse on board, a GP and a copper - I'd say the emergency services are taken care of - one of the guides is a mechanic, so I think we are really OK. Everybody so far seems really nice and helpful, so overall we are quite happy. We are now doing some 3 days of all day driving to get to the Pantanal, which is a wildlife hotspot in the South West corner of Brasil, full of birds, alligators, capybaras and unfortunately mosquitos. We are going to spend 2 nights in a lodge with pool and all luxuries, so we are quite looking forward to it.
Below are some pics of the camp and of a day boat trip we took from Paraty on boats called 'schooners' - ours was called Sir Francis Drake. It was really good, we made 3 stops at different islands and the water was absolutely gorgeous. Then they cooked on the boat and served a very good fish meal, AND I managed not to get burnt!

Next stop Pantanal, greetings to all