Activity Summary
Thursday 18th January - Day 471
Boat to Angra dos Reis mainland
Local bus to Paraty
Dinner at Moura Empório
Walk around Paraty
Friday 19th January - Day 472
Paraty walking tour (Free Walker Tour)
Ice cream at Gelateria Miracolo
Dinner at Moura Empório
Summary
Paraty
A surprisingly nice colonial town, one Nicola even reckons could be her favourite.
The largely pedestrianised central town made it nice and calm, despite the constant wariness of falling in a giant cobblestone. The town is pretty, bougie and nice to walk around.
Enjoyed our time here after not expecting a whole lot.
Transport
Paraty
Walk to Ilha Grande pier
10am ferry to Angra dos Reis (R$20.50pp)
104 bus to Rodoviária Vereador Nilton Barbosa terminal
Bus to Paraty
Walk to accommodation
Accommodation
Paraty - Pousada El Viajero
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £12
Positives:
Aircon
Great breakfast
White walls so mozzies could be seen easily
Comfortable enough room
Negatives:
Shared bathroom that was a bit grim
Place run down
Outside smells like sewer but didn’t penetrate into the room thankfully
Kitchen not allowed to be used by guests
Recommend?
For the price compared to the rest of Paraty, yes
Diary
Thursday 18th January - Day 471
Our boat to the Angra dos Reis mainland was at 10am so it should have been a nice relaxed morning packing and wandering over to the queue. Luke then discovered he had walked in a particularly potent dog shite the previous day which had spent all evening drying and intertwining with his shoe. Getting rid of this when we were supposed to have left was really grim, it didn’t remove any of the smell and it was so bad Nicola had to leave the room. The smell would follow him all day.
At the pier ticket purchases were a little confusing, having a counter separate from the main queue but without any indication this was the process. But we eventually realised our error.
We got talking to a British / Canadian couple for the length of the ferry ride over which was nice, despite the savage heat. Literally zero airflow all day despite being cloudy.
At the port we parted ways with the couple and got the 104 local bus to the main bus terminal for R$6pp. Google was surprisingly helpful with public transport options.
We were under the impression the bus would require a ticket purchased from the counter but they were on a 3 hour lunch break so figured it had to be a pay on the bus jobby. Thankfully this was the case and we didn’t have to wait for the counter to open, and it was another local bus to Paraty (albeit much less frequent than the shorter ride ones). This one was R$22pp.
This was one of the less pleasant bus / coach rides we had taken for a while. The bus was rammo, our big bags were on top of us and Luke was not in a great position for nearly 2 hours. Airflow was limited and by the time we hit Paraty he was a sweaty mess.
At least our accomodation was super close to the bus terminal. Being opposite the bus terminal it was probably the most conveniently located we have ever had for arriving and departing a place.
Apart from this the place was mighty basic. We clearly had been spoiled for a while because the shared bathroom situation wasn’t that pleasant, a big part because it was a bit grotty and didn't have toilet roll or soap. Luke went on a room mosquito killing rampage, hitting double digits by the time we were in bed that evening. At least this time the room helped him greatly by having white walls, great for spotting the fuckers.
It turns out Paraty is mad expensive hence why our accomodation was also quite expensive for such a basic b set up.
Food consumption over the course of the day was not significant so we went for a very early dinner at Moura Empório. Decent burgers but they certainly did a number on us. Nicola’s eructation was reaching all time record levels, as if channelling her inner big bad wolf chasing down the 3 little pigs in the opposite rooms. Luke on the other hand had been provided with a very tasty but very spicy sauce he decided to lather all over his food and in turn was blessed with his anus turning into a flaming ring of fire and perpetual torment for the next morning. Fun times.
It was a pretty nice temperature in Paraty and after spending most of the day travelling we had a walk around town.
With the recent rain the large cobblestone streets proved incredibly difficult to walk across but it did give Luke a chance to try to get rid of the rancid shit stain from his poo foot. The smell did abate for the most part but it hasn’t worked in totality.
Friday 19th January - Day 472
Our only planned activity was a Paraty walking tour (Free Walker Tour) at 10.30am. For such a small place, it wasn’t surprising the group was pretty small at only 6 of us but overall it was a decent walking tour.
The guide didn’t speak amazing English but he was easy to understand and had a delivery style that was more cute than incredibly interesting.
The history of Paraty was interesting. Historically it has been an incredibly challenging place to get to, used by the Portuguese to roll their gold out of Minas Gerais along with São Paulo and Rio but was only connected by a trail into the mountains and by boat.
Only in the 1950’s did a road connect up the town to the mainland easily. Therefore all the historic colonial buildings survived any grand desire to rebrand them and now is a UNESCO site.
The prices of these inner city buildings are astronomical. The prices our guide was quoting at us ranged from $1m-$10m and apparently the city was a playground for very rich people. No surprises why the cost of everything was so high in Paraty when rents for shops were crazy money.
Parish Church of Our Lady of Remedies
Praça da Matriz
Expensive shop that had sand as its floor. Apparently rent is a lot of money.
Church of Our Lady of Sorrows
Prince of Brazil's house - apparently the old monarchy bloodline still exists. The prince holds the highest title, since being a king or queen is not possible, and is quite friendly with our guide. The prince holds no power and has title only.
Mangroves - Paraty is humid and once had many a mangrove where the town now is.
Loads of tiny crabs that come and go with the tide that floods parts of the town. At this point an old random local decided to take over the tour for a bit and imparted very little interesting information our way before finally jogging on. Everyone, including the guide, just politely waited for him to finish his segment which was being said at a snail's pace.
More expensive houses and nice cobblestone streets
Flooded streets - the city has wooden bridges and raised levels for when the tide comes in. Apparently sea level rise hasn't had much of an impact yet, but in 2018 the swell had water up to shoulder height in places.
Church Saint Rita
Instagrammable street
We didn’t walk at all far but the tour was a good laugh and interesting.
Nicola was having back problems (she has some dirty knots that make Luke squeal like a piglet) and was very keen to get to a gym to work her faltering muscles. The nice one in town wouldn’t let us in for a day pass and the other was too expensive for a lack of aircon so we gave up.
A quick afternoon ice cream at Gelateria Miracolo got us out of the room for a bit but it didn’t compare to the joy we had in Iguazú.
To avoid the problems our previous dinner choice gave us, we did try to go to another well rated place that seemed affordable but for love nor money could we find it. A local Turkish place didn’t tickle Nicola and we ended up right back at Moura Empório. Decent burgers though.
Naturally the big bad wolf returned. Luke was much better behaved with his hot sauce application and was all dandy the next day.
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