Blogs from Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 9

Muita Historia e mistérios em Paraty. Cidade colonial de 1667, bem preservada, Patrimônio Histórico Nacional, para andar devagarinho, apreciando tudo e cuidando para nao tropeçar nas pedras da pavimentaço “pé-de-moleque” (diferente da “cabeça-de-nego" de Fernando de Noronha em tipo, cor e formato de pedra, e colocaçao). Inumeros casarões e igrejas traduzem os símbolos maçônicos que enfeitam suas paredes. Daria para rodar um “Angels and Demons” brasileiro por lá e mudar o tema “favela” que ja cansamos de exportar com o cinema. A arquitetura e urbanizaçao da cidade de abastados personagens, foram planejadas para ser "lavada" propositalmente duas vezes por dia. Voce vai ver as escadas para as portas de entrada, altas quase ao nivel das janelas, para evitar inundaçao das casas. Isso porque os pinicos eram esvaziados pelas ruas, como era costume em toda a Europa ... read more

So today we had the opportunity to go on a boat tour of the islands around Paraty. Our day started early (we left the hotel at 9.15) but it was a great idea, as we had plenty of time to tour around the various islands and beaches of this lovely tourist town. Amy finally got the chance to see the turquoise water she always wants to see and we had fun feeding the wildlife as well (monkeys, iguanas, fish and possums). Brazil´s been very fun thus far and today´s beach day was no exception. Plenty of time to relax, swim and just enjoy the tropical weather. Neither Amy nor I got sunburned and her feet are doing much better today, so everything should be back to normal soon. We´re off to Rio in the morning and ... read more

So.. .(only kidding) We caught the boat back to the mainland yesterday, then travelled a couple of hours on a packed local bus down the coast, past a nuclear power station, and on to Paraty - an old colonial town with brightly coloured windows and doors, and roughly cobbled streets that flood at high tide. I say flood, but I guess that´s more at the Spring tides - it did come in a bit yesterday, and I went back to one of the churches last night to see if I could get a nice photo at the top of the tide, only to find that I was at the top of the tide the fist time... a slightly dejected walk back to the hotel... We all went out for a shrimp supper last night, then managed ... read more

I was sad to leave Isla Grande but I had to make my way to Sao Paulo to get my flight back home, but before that happened I had a brief stop in Paraty. To get to Paraty I got a local bus to the bus station and wandered down the main street to the ocean which is where the Misti Chill hostel was located. I would recommend this hostel, it had a good vibe about it and the manager there was from new Zealand so we entertained ourselves with Flight of the Concords anecdotes. Unfortunately the respite on Isla Grande the rain had come back. Paraty is a sleepy old colonial town and I spent the day wandering round the cobbled streets, apart from that the main things to do are a number of day ... read more

From Iguazu we decided to take a bus to Sao Paulo and from there directly on to a little coastal town called Paraty (pronounced "Parachi"). This was a pretty gruelling journey totalling over 24 hours but we decided not to stop in Sao Paulo as the guidebook suggested the main sites were museums so not really our kind of place (i.e too cultural) so we decided to spend our time in Brazil in and around Rio. The bus ride from Iguazu took an "interesting" turn when we were raided by the military police. It did not help that we cant speak a word of Portuguese but the policeman kindly explained in English while he was searching through Joe's bag that it was a "Blitz" - oh much clearer then. When they had searched through 90% of ... read more