Saturday, October 14, 2006

Paraty, Brazil


It´s a two-hour (local) bus ride from the port of Angra to Paraty - a lovely colonial town with cobbled streets and colourful doors. It was raining when I arrived last night and it didn´t stop for most of the evening. I ran into an Australian couple I met in Rio and then again on Ilha Grande. I have a feeling I´ll be doing that a lot.

Was feeling a little hard done by in that it always seems to be raining. I asked a local if this was normal. ´Yes - it rains pretty much every day in October´ was the reply, which made me feel slightly better knowing that I wasn´t just unlucky. I should have noticed earlier that there are even postcards of Paraty in the rain!

The rain didn´t seem to keep people away from the pop concert on in town. It´s a bank holiday weekend here so the place is flooded with tourists and Brazilian weekenders. The shops are open late so I treated myself to another pair of Havaianas. Very useful in the rain.

Today I took a 30-minute bus ride to Penha where there is an old Cachaca distillery and a natural toboggan i.e. people throwing themselves off a large slippery rock. The countryside there is simply stunning.

Tonight there is another street party here. Not sure it´s going to be a late one for me as I have a 24 hour bus ride tomorrow to Foz do Iguazu via Sao Paolo.

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