Paraty

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Paraty was really just a place to stop off on the way to the Iguazu falls, and is a really great place for a brief visit! Paraty is an old colonial town and has really pretty historic centre with large cobble stones (some of which are more like rocks!), horse and carts, and many brightly coloured old buildings. We stayed in the cheapest hostel we could find, Don Quixone, which is right in the centre. The hostel was basic but fine, has two free computers and provides breakfast. BUT the rooms are ridiculously hot at night! We really struggled to sleep due to the lack of air con. You cant really complain for R$25 a night though.



You really don't need more than a couple of nights in Paraty unless planning to travel to Trinidade which a lot of people choose to do. We spent our first day on the beach, one just along from pontal beach as it is supposed to be nicer, and looking around the town. We then bumped into some English people we met in Rio, they were just leaving Paraty but advised us that most people go and drink at Gheko hostel by the beach so we headed down there that night.



Lucy caught the first, and so far only, travel bug of our trip and was ill the next day and night but luckily we still had one more night booked! So the next day we headed to a local waterfall - Cachoiera do Toboga - so much fun! The end of the waterfall is a huge, smooth rock that you can slide down and into the pool at the bottom! The locals surf down on their feet but all other tourists tend to just slide down as its so slippery. There's also a really nice natural pool if you walk further up the waterfall.



A few tips
- The People that we bumped into also told us they had been waiting around an extra 2 days to catch the bus to Sao Paulo as it was fully booked. This may only be the case in high season, but we went to the bus station and booked in advance.
- There are loads of tour to different waterfalls but we only wanted to see the one so caught a local bus for about R$3
- For those who don't speak Portugese, if you see an Italiana pizza with Champignon and Palmito, don't assume Palmito is some sort of ham. Palmito is 'heart of palm' from the centre of a palm tree, so you will end up with a tree and mushroom pizza! It actually wasn't tooo bad but really didn't taste of much!

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