Day 8: 2013
Autumn Travels [Ilha Grande, Brazil à Paraty,
Brazil]
After a quick
breakfast (good old acai, this time in the form of a vitamin juice blended with
banana, beetroot and oats!) we caught the boat back to the mainland port and
then a bus onto Paraty.
Paraty is a
colonial town on the border of Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo . It’s by the sea with very uneven cobblestones
– in the words of Lonely Planet “you know a place is authentic when the
cobblestones are so uneven, it’s actually painful to walk the streets!” It’s a maze of white stable-style buildings
with varying colours of doors and window frames.
We had a wander around
the historical streets and saw lots of multi-coloured boats.
We stopped at
another ‘pay by the kilo’ buffet bar for lunch.
Paraty is famous
for cachaca making so we visited an old Fazenda (distillery) where we saw the
machines and tasted a number of different versions, including caramel, cinnamon
and rainforest berries.
Then we visited
a waterfall and crossed over a swaying bridge before the heavens opened.
We caught a
highly entertaining bus back to town which was rammed full of people and
playing old classic tunes at top volume.
After wading
(literally!) through the flooded streets we made it back to our hostel.
Due to the
downpour which showed no sign of letting up, we stayed in our hotel and an
ex-chef in our group whipped up a massive spag-bol for the group. We had a fab courtyard with hot tub that we
could all hang out in.
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