Paraty is a quaint little fishing village that has got stuck in time after the gold boom ended and it had no proper roads leading to it until about 50 years ago. The architecture is all colonial Portuguese and the streets are designed to flood during heavy rain or high tides and clean the rubbish away. The are no cars allowed in the old town, just horse and carts. We stayed in a lovely guesthouse, courtesy of Nic´s mum Anne, where little monkeys would steel bread from us in the morning.
We hired a clapped out 70´s VW Beatle (courtesy of my mum Andro) and headed up into the jungle, and bounced along dirt tracks to find waterfalls.
We went to 3 different ones, one had an amazing series of falls and pools of different sizes, another spilled out over a large rock which you could use as a massive slide and the last had a rope swing that you could play at being Tarzan on.
The local kids were amazing on the rock, speeding around and doing jumps.
I managed about 3 seconds before I fell on my arse. Not quite so graceful but good fun all the same, plus the locals enjoyed laughing at the gringo
I was a little more successful as Tarzan.
Nic´s favourite was this place, with some amazing rocks formations.
We had lunch at a beautiful little river side restaurant, appropriately called Bonita Brazil, and ate far too much seafood and chicken wings. Nic enjoyed a couple of birthday caiprinhas too
When we got back we had one of the best meals we´ve had whilst we´ve been away. Delicious Thai food in a cool little restaurant in the old town. It was comically expensive (English prices) so thanks Ellen and Helen for stumping up the readies.
All in all one of the best days we´ve had since we´ve been away
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