Paraty, Brazil - American Adventures 2014 (Part 4 of 8)
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Published: July 13th 2015
When the others at the hostel decided after carnival to move on, things got lonely. Initially I'd planned to stay in Rio for the whole month and just make action plans ... however I felt like exploring new territory.
I went online and searched for places near Rio to visit and up came a town called Parati. The reviews were great so that's where I decided to go next. First stop ... buying a bus ticket which meant taking a trip to the bus station a day before. It's possible to buy tickets online, however if you're not from Brazil the price doubles for online purchases. I asked the person managing the hostel how to get to the bus station and he told me to get a taxi as it wasn't safe to walk there ... a very dodgy area and especially if you have bags you will be a target for a robbery, bum rape or something worse. So I decided to walk it ... this is what I do. I understood what he meant and what I thought was a 5 min walk ended up taking an hour through a not-so-friendly neighbourhood. I purchased my ticket and decided
I would come back the next day in a taxi.
The owners of the hostel were lovely people and they offered to keep hold of my extra suitcase for some weeks until I returned to Rio to fly home. I had a computer, phone and other goods in there which I entrusted to them because they were genuinely helpful.
The next morning I took a taxi to the bus station and off I went with clean laundry towards Parati. The journey took 4.5 hours which I didn't think I'd be able to manage ... it seemed way too long on public transport. Luckily Parati was the last stop so I knew where to get off. If you stop in towns in between, there is no warning or announcement ... you just have to know this is your stop. Worse are the stops that are on random roads throughout the journey in the wilderness. If you don't go to the driver and tell him your stop is approaching, the bus doesn't stop. I used GPS and Google Maps on all my bus journeys to have an idea of where I was (whenever it worked). I found out for some
reason you can't save Brazil maps in offline mode with G Maps ... it won't allow it for some countries. My workaround was to view where I was going beforehand so the data would be saved in cache.
When I arrived in Parati I quickly found my hostel which was 2 mins away from the bus station ... maybe even 1. I checked into an overpacked dorm and headed out to explore the town. Oh man, I fell in love with this place straight away. Parati is paradise ... it reminded me of Tavira and I felt that spark I felt when I first landed in Tavira. Cobbled streets, local community vibe, peaceful, magical, a river, local beach with bar and happy people, mountains and tropical beaches all around ... this was indeed the life.
The hostel I was staying at was well-known for its breakfasts. Usually breakfast is cheese, ham, bread, done ... this place was known for Paulo's cooking. Many people came to this town just to experience the breakfast of Paulo. When morning arrived I was covered in mosquito bites. Up to this point I was doing ok, but the mozzies in Parati were causing
some massive reactions and there were many lethal mozzies in this town. But I didn't care, I was a man on a mission ... I could smell Paulo's breakfast a mile away. Well actually it was 5 meters away, I jumped out of bed, turned left and saw a table of delights. Fresh fruits, pineapple, 10 varieties of cheeses, soups, eggs, 5 different homemade fruit juices, meats, olives, so many things I can't remember now. Breakfast is included in the room price so I made sure to eat for a whole day and take some fruits for the rest of the day. I rarely wake up for breakfast as it's too early for me and sadly, during my week at this place I only experienced Paulo's delights twice.
In Parati I learnt for the first time how different a culture can be in their methods of doing what we do without thinking. What I'm talking about is .... taking a crap. In Brazil the sewage system isn't advanced and toilet paper flushing is forbidden. This I didn't know in Rio so was happily doing it. Over here they had signs saying "If you flush TP we will know about
because we're watching you". I certainly hoped nobody was watching me as my body said goodbye to Paulo's breakfast. I didn't know what to do ... I looked at the bin and people just wiped their butt and placed tissue in the bin (without a lid) like it was normal practice ... to me this was bizarre so I continued to flush. On some occasions it required a few flushes as it would block the drain. It took a few weeks before I was comfortable enough to change my ways.
The first day a group of us got together and went on a day trip doing adventures. The hostel crew organize events when there are enough people that want to go. First stop was picking up the girlfriend of the hostel guy who was taking us out in the minibus. Now this girl was absolutely bonkers, and pretty ... Argentinian I think. All of the hostel staff spoke Spanish as did many people in the town ... definitely not Brazilian. I called this girl "Chica Loca" for the rest of the trip because she was crazy, full of life and somebody I will never forget. The car journey was
dull, then she came along and we were having a party, beeping for other cars to join in with us ... epic fun times. First stop was a rock slide where we used a bar of soap to make the rocks slippery with water and then slid down it straight into the river. This seemed scary at first, yet as the day went on this first task was super-not-scary. We performed dives from high up, rope jumping and epic sliding. I found a video on youtube of one of the places which had a restaurant next to it:
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That night I bought some ingredients and decided to make Pilau rice. Paulo was doing homemade pizzas but I didn't want to pay for his food since it was a bit much. It always included free alcohol but I'm not a drinker so it didn't make sense. I was busy cooking pilau rice and I ended up making enough for 4 days so I froze it in tubs. I did offer the rice to others but it wasn't a big success.
There was a local beach in town and it had some calisthenics equipment ... bars, dip stationetc. One
of the people I met from a different hostel was German and he had this strong Arnie-style accent. He was travelling with TRX cables and we used to train on the beach using these. Afterwards there was a track by the river for a jog ... followed by well-deserved defrosted pilau rice
wink emoticon One of the trips people take from this beach is a kayaking tour around the islands. Some people I knew went one day and when they came back they looked flustered. One of them was attacked by wild dogs on the island and the instructor had to beat them off with his paddle. I've seen a lot of crazy dogs in this town ... the streets were full of stray, angry, hungry dogs. This is one thing I didn't like about it when I was chilling at night. That night I decided to leave the bar early and head back home. A few hours later a couple of others came back and they were followed all the way by a guy on a bike asking for money. They kept ignoring him but this guy saw they were drunk so wanted to
take advantage (1 guy, 1 girl). As they approached the door to the hostel at around 5am the guy on the bike got aggressive and demanded money. He held something under his shirt and said "I have a gun, give me money or die b!tches" ... so they had to try and get inside quickly before anything happened. It is very unlikely he had a gun and it was probably a 3rd arm because his mother was his dad's sister. When I heard about this I was upset because this town was a dream town and I couldn't imagine there being crime here ... there were even policeman strolling the streets like back in the UK days with Bobby Patrol ... I was only a child back then but I do miss Bobby Patrol.
A few times I went to a beach called 'Trinidad' that took 45 mins by bus. The buses in Brazil have a different design to what I'm used to. When you get on there is the driver. You then turn left and there's another operator who you will pay for tickets. Next to him is a revolving turnstyle thing that you go through single file
when you pay. Thing is, this is small so if you have a suitcase, you're stuck. And if you're fat, no chance, you have to stand next to the driver if there is space and hope he likes you. Trinidad beach was so tranquil. A couple of us in one of these trips decided to venture out and found a local hotspot behind the mountain which the locals called 'piscina natural' or 'natural swimming pool'. The sea was surrounded by rocks in a circular fashion which made a swimming pool formation within ... all natural. The water wasn't that high, waist deep initially and shoulder deep as you walked further in. I saw people walking in the water carrying their bags and belongings over their heads to get to the other side. I decided to do the same and realized how difficult it was ... there were uneven rocks and slippery moss underneath, the water to my shoulders and I'm fighting to not let my bag full of electronics go into the water. I make it through to the other side, put my belongings down and go off on an adventure. In the middle of this pool was a big
rock which I climbed onto. For some reason my brain wanted to know if it was possible to do a head dive into shallow waters, about chest-high. I was looking around and debating whether to dive in to find out. I started calculating lengths, movement and water resistance and decided that it should be fine ... by the time I hit the ground I'll have slowed down a lot. I get ready ... back down ... get ready ... back down ... get ready ... and dive into the water. Within a split second I've hit the bottom, the force has bent my fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck ... and it hurt as my entire body weight landed onto my arm which cut open. I knew people were watching me so I quickly inverted, popped my head out of the water and smiled a weak but successful smile, blood pouring out of my side. This was a stupid thing to do and now I just wanted to go home
frown emoticon Oh man, Parati was such an adventure, so many exciting things happening. My favourite memory is of the last night. The bedroom I
was staying in was on the ground floor and outside was a home-built swimming pool, just those circular ones you put up. I needed to sleep because the last few nights there were 5 German guys staying there who were working in Sao Paulo and they were so inconsiderate towards other people. Even the TRX Arnie guy hated them. I decided I will try to sleep ... which was difficult in near 40 celsius heat. After a while I heard a giggling noise and opened my eyes. Outside there was a stunning naked chick in the pool (Argentinian I believe, I came across so many stunning Argentinians on my trip). The German guys noticed this too and like hungry dogs they decided they wanted to join the party and went out 1 by 1 to 'go for their regular midnight dip'. I was just lying there watching this girl moving gracefully, laughing, splashing water, spinning and being angelic. She helped my mind relax and I fell asleep soon ... only to be woken up by the German crew who stormed in, put the lights on and started shouting like it was the middle of the day ... at this point
I got angry and I called them assholes and told them to "man up, be considerate and shut the f^ck up".
The next morning I woke up expecting to make time for one last Paulo breakfast before I left for the bus station. This wasn't meant to be as I was monging in bed with a lack of energy. I had that a lot in Parati, a lack of energy. I think eating bad, sunshine and mosquito bites were to blame. These mozzies were vicious and would even bite my buttcheeks through my shorts ... shocking.
I finally got up when I knew my bus would leave in 10 mins. I took a banana, wished Paulo farewell, looked at the Germans in disappointment and rushed to the bus station for my journey to .....
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