Historic Paraty

We had always planned on visiting Paraty (Rio de Janeiro state), based on a friend's emphatic recommendation.  Squeezing in a visit to Ilha Grande and having to be in Sao Paulo in time for the Grand Prix meant we only had one full day in Paraty.  But what a fun day it was!

Paraty is a very historic town, being the first settlement by the Portuguese.  The colonial old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  However, I have to admit that rather than admiring the architecture and soaking up the atmosphere I really wanted to do something active.  The cute little hostel we were staying at offered cycling tours or kayak tours.  A chat with some other guests revealed that the kayaking was great fun until they had to turn around and paddle back, with a headwind the entire journey back.  We chose the cycling!

The aim of the cycling tour was to explore the waterfalls and pools dotted along the river that descends into Paraty from the rainforest. We made two stops, the first being a huge rock formation within a series of pools and waterfalls.  The rock formation looked like a gigantic pebble with the water cascading down, creating a natural water slide into a pool at the bottom.  Of course I was getting involved immediately!  It was so much fun, I must have gone down it at least a dozen times.  Check out the pictures and videos and you will see why.  Nilgun was up for the challenge too. On her first go the look of terror in her face was priceless, but I made her do it a second time as I didn't capture the first go on camera.

Back on the bikes for the second waterfall and a tarzan swing into the pool.  Before we reached the waterfall we came across some incredibly cute little monkeys up in the trees.  They were as interested in us as we were them.  The monkeys gradually became more confident and began climbing down so that they were a mere two feet away from us.  We later learnt that these monkeys are typically shy and this was quite unusual behaviour - we had got lucky!

The tarzan swing was also great fun, but as I have pathetically weak upper body strength I was not able to compete with our Belgian friend's fantastic acrobatics on the rope.  Nevertheless, I happilly blasted up all the hills on the bike whilst everyone else had to get off and push at some points. :-)

We finished off the day with a stroll around the old town.  It really is quite beautiful, and so colourful.  The dock is lined with small skiffs painted in every colour imaginable.  If we had more time we would have taken one of these to visit a few of the tiny islands that surround Paraty. Maybe next time.