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Published: June 15th 2010
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Oi!
After reluctantly leaving Florianopolis after a great stay we hopped on an overnight bus towards Sao Paulo. 10 hours later we grabbed another bus, this time 6 hours, to our next destination in Brazil- Paraty. Paraty is one of Brazil's most beautiful colonial cities and is located right on the Atlantic coast about 4 hours south of Rio. Once again it's loaded with tons of beaches, islands, mangroves and generally beautiful scenery. Once a month when there is a full moon and the tide is high the seawater rises to a level which results in the flooding of the Historic Center. About 6-10 inches of water flows in and fills the streets. We unfortunately did not get to witness this but from the pictures it looked pretty cool. The water doesn't stay in town for long after the tide goes out so it doesn't really disrupt the city much. After arriving mid-afternoon from the second leg of our bus trip we settled into the hostel and then headed into the historic part of the city to watch France vs. Urugauy in the second match of the World Cup (kind of a big deal here in Brazil haha). As I
mentioned in the Florianopolis blog it's winter in this part of Brazil so things are generally pretty quiet. Nonetheless we found a pub with the game on and enjoyed some beers (me) and a caipirinha (Brazil's national cocktail- Laura).
Day 2 we did a kayak tour of the Paraty bay for about 4.5hrs with a break for lunch on one of the small islands. The Paraty bay is absolutely beautiful. You are surrounded by mountains totally covered in dense jungle and there are some 40+ small islands that dot the bay. Many of the island are inhabited by rich Brazilians however some are still deserted. One interesting story we were told by our guide is that in Brazil if you live in one spot for more than 2 years you automatically become the land owner apparently. So, some time ago 2 people started living on one of the islands in very basic accomodation and now they own it! All for no cost. Pretty cool I thought. After our stop on the island we headed back to the launch point but this time taking a slightly different route. We passed through a small mangrove which you can paddle through when
the tide is high which was very cool. Overall a good day/trip however the weather didn't really cooperate with heavy clouds and period of rain. Not a huge deal as we were wet from the open-concept kayaks anyways however the views were not quite what they could have been.
For Day 3 we decided to do some exploring on our own so we rented a set of bikes from the hostel and toured around Paraty and the surrounding area for the day. After biking north for an hour or so and passing by a small village called Pantanal and going up and down the beautiful country (jungle) side hills we turned around headed back to Paraty. Our next stop was the Jabaquara beach not far from our hostel which was not the nicest beach we have been to but still stunning surroundings and cold beer readily available. We chilled out here for an hour and a half or so and then heading into the historic center to take some photos of all the colourful colonial buildings. After touring around there for a bit we went to a local brewery for some beers and a late lunch while watching the
Italy vs. Paraguay match. Great, full day.
The following day we caught a short (40min) bus to a nearby town called Trindade which is renowned for it's beautiful beaches (kinda our thing haha). We'll write next from there.
Take care all,
Greg and Laura
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