Next stop Paraty

---

---

Capoeira in Paraty

Natural waterslide 1

Natural waterslide 2

---

Paraty, pronounced Parachee, is a very old Town. Built in the 1700´s by the Portuguese it formed part of the Gold Trail, a stopover between the gold mines and Rio de Janeiro it was used to transport gold back to Europe. History lesson over!
We arrive in Paraty quite late in the afternoon with little time to do much, instead we prepare ourselves for a jeep tour of the Town and surroundings the following day.
Morning breaks and we head in to stunning countryside and views. Along the way we visit beautiful Waterfalls where we take "refreshing" dips, cross rivers using some very dodgy rope bridges, watch the locals "surf" down a natural water slide (steep rocks smoothed by years of running water). We also visit a distillery which produces Cachaca (the stuff they use in Caiprinhas). We have a try and both agree it´s an acquired taste - a cross between pure alcohol and pure alcohol!!!!
The tour takes pretty much all day and we return to the "hotel" exhausted. In the evening we witness a partial eclipse of the moon before joining the rest of the town in celebrating its 340th anniversary. We watch the locals performing Capoeira - a Brazilian martial art developed by slaves - a fantastic sight. The strength, agility and coordination in performing and not actually hitting each other is amazing - although at times when it got pretty fast there was some contact!
We then enjoyed a few drinks whilst watching a concert laid on for the celebrations until the early hours - never mind the early start tomorrow - we´re on holiday!!

---

Comments

[james]

Happy Birthday
Love the blogs my friend! Keep them coming and showing us what's it like to have a life....Happy birthday