Bernie's Travels: Paraty, Brazil

From Sao Paulo Brazil I caught a bus five hours north to the picturesque coastal town of Paraty. I only planned to stay 2-3 days in Paraty but I ended staying five nights. On the bus I met a couple of cool people from South Africa, Garath and Sandy. Together we found a great hostel/restaurant that wasn't in the guide book, called “Sereia do Mar.” It was comfortable place located right across from the beach, and with a great staff. One day they even offered to let us take out the kayaks for free.

The hostel was located out of town center about ten minutes by foot, but it was a beautiful walk back to town along the beach. The town itself was one of the most charming places I've seen in my trip. A couple hundred years ago or more when Brazil had it's big gold boom most of the gold was shipped out of Paraty. The wealth that the gold trade brought to Paraty can be seen in its beautiful architecture. Garath, Sandy and I had a good time walking around seeing the town and drinking beer with the locals.

We happened to time our visit during a religious festival, but I couldn't tell you what exactly the were celebrating - it was just one big party. Each night their were bands or shows with food, beer, and “caiparina” stands all around. On our first night there we got to see a crazy kareoke/talent show.

Another day I went with Garath and number of others from the hostel on a cachaça and waterfall tour. We hopped into an old VW van with the hostel owners Nicolas and Ariel and made it to the cachaça (pronounced “cashaza”) distillery where we warmed up so we could slide down the cool waterfalls. Cachaça is Brazil's spirit of choice and the key ingredient to making a “Caiparina”. Cachaça is made of sugar cane then distilled into a clear spirit for mixing or aged in oak barrels to drink straight.

The waterfalls/ natural water slide were a blast. It was cold enough that I wasn't planning to slide down them but it looked like too much fun to resist.

Another day Sandy, Garath and I went kayaking out in Paraty bay. There are supposed to be about 300 islands in the area. There is a cool island tour but unfortunately most of the days were rainy or cloudy so I didn't bother with it. We saw a few island on our kayaking adventure but it would be nice to come back and see some of the others.

Since Paraty was a port with gold being shipped out of it there was a fort to protect the precious cargo from pirates. Walking from the hostel into town it sits on a point of land along the way.

All around Paraty was a beautiful place and unique town. Another interesting thing about Paraty is that it was built so that high tide would flood the streets and carry out the trash to sea. Not the most environmentally friendly design but interesting to see part of the city temporarily flooded.