Paraty

19.05.2008 - 26.05.2008 30 °C
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Had the worst journey of our trip so far - 2 buses from Praia Armação to Florianopolis bus station, an overnight 11 hour bus to Sao Paulo (the amount of traffic there is unbelievable!), a 6 hour bus to Paraty where we had lunch while waiting for another bus which took us an hour through the jungle on a bumpy road to a nearby village that we had planned to stay in but soon realised there were no hostels/hotels so we then had to get back on the bus to Paraty - 6 buses and 24 hours, POXY!!

ANYWAY.....We got showered and dressed up and went straight out to explore. Paraty turned out to be faaaaantastic! The historical quarter is blocked off to traffic and the cobblestone streets are lined with restaurants and bars playing live music. There was a Brazilian festival while we were there so the town was really buzzing and the atmosphere was great.

There are 65 islands surrounding Paraty and we went on a fantastic boat trip to see a few of them and do some snorkelling.

We went to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink bbq and had our first Caipirinha....and second and third etc etc! Stayed there till 3am with the owner, playing pool and drinking homemade Cachaça (the national drink used to make the Caipirinha cocktail)! The next day we crawled out of bed at about 2pm and hired a canoe to look around the bay.

Paraty and the nearby town of Trindade were lovely. This is the view of the river in Paraty.....