The Green Coast of Paraty
Trip Start
Nov 12, 2008
1
27
49
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Paraty,
State of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Staying in a quiet little Poussada, we arrived after a bus journey ready to investigate the town in the evening. Our bodies had different ideas, no doubt thanking us for Rio, and after the 1-hour power nap turned into a 12-hour snooze fest we found ourselves investigating on the second day.
Taking a boat tour out onto the sea was a great way to see the local setting. It is easily accessed from Rio (4 hours) and Sao Paulo (6 hours) here so it has become a bit of a millionaires playground. Dotted along the otherwise virgin forestry are magnificent villas with their own beaches and docks. Similarly private islands belonging to some of Brazils richest people are located nearby resplendent with private helipads and Abromovich-style ocean going yachts. Buzzing past the boat came regular numbers of speed boats with the Costa Verde cognoscenti sunning themselves aboard.
The sea around here is warm and teeming with sea life, amongst others the unusual ´needle fish´ shaped like a mini-baracuda with strangecolours moving like waves down its body, at night glowing flourescent in the water. The weather was hot hot hot, and the boat stopped regularly to let you cool off. All of this was accompanied by a Brazillian man (who must have been at least 22-stone) playing guitar and playing all of the Brazillian classics.
The town itself is very interesting, mainly built on the profits of gold and other materials, and built on the broken bag of the slave workers. they have repaid their debt however, building many churches in honour of the slaves who built the city. Being next to the sea, they also have a novel way of street cleaning. Given the fact that the streets, they call Peasant Roads, would be bugger to keep clean, they dont bother, they just built the city at low tide level. That way, every high tide the water comes in and washes the streets. Great idea, except you spend a fair portion of the evening stepping through water and over small temporary bridges. Heres an idea, get up off your arse, stop drinking caipirinhas and just do a little sweep eh?
Tonight is the towns birthday and a big free concert is being performed in the harbour. We will pop along to that, in no small way motivated by the offer of free cake which I can testify, is bloody amazing. Onwards...
