Paraty, Brazil

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A quaint cobbled street town located on the shoreline of Brazil. The 7 of us travellers arrived at the local bus station, sticking out like sore thumbs by looking like a rainbow of backpacking snails had just arrived into town. Yep, the bus with Gringos had just pulled up.

Our intention was only to stay 3 nights in Paraty. It was a lovely little town and thankfully a music festival which was occuring that weekend (Brazils most popular and loved amongst young teenage girls singer was playing - mind you no-one had ever heard of him!) livened up with town and gave the town a great vibe. The beaches around Paraty are quite nice, the shopping is dangerous as it has all art and crafty little shops in amongst the cobbled street so for us girls, shopping was very tempting at all times.

We didn't take into consideration Paraty was a huge destination for Brazilians over bank holidays, which meant when we went to buy tickets to San Paulo for the following day the buses were full for the next 2 days. Damn, didn't think of that! Our next stop was to be Iguazu falls. This is a 22hrs bus journey with a change of buses at San Paulo. We were stuck in Paraty for another day and half. Most travellers stop in Paraty after Ilha Grande, l'd recommend only 2 nights for some chilled out quite time with friendly locals. Take the opportunity to explore the islands surrounding Paraty, which is accompanied by jungled mountains, by doing a boat trip. If you go when there is a festival, all the better.

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