Paraty

We started our morning together with a run along the beach. It was definitely one of the better beaches we had been on but the sand was very soft which made it quite hard to run on (which resulted in sore calves and ankles!)

We had breakfast in the hotel before heading out on our boat cruise! We boarded around 10.30am and cruised around some of the smaller islands in the region, stopping at a couple of beaches and even a snorkelling spot where we saw lots of fish.

We enjoyed a few drinks on board and chatted with the majority of the group who were on the boat and had a fantastic time on the water. We were lucky to have a nice sunny day on the boat!

After the cruise, we quickly got changed before going on a walking tour of Paraty where we learned a lot about Paraty and Brazil from our guide, Enrique (Harry), as we walked around the small colonial town. Some of the information we learnt included that:
- The Portuguese were the successful country who conquered the Brazilian land ahead of the Americans and English by sailing across the Atlantic and using the favourable sea winds to their advantage.
-Paraty is a Brazilian heritage site and nothing in the old town can be rebuilt unless there is a painting or blueprint of what it was before. Not many people actually live in the Old Town today - many of the houses are holiday houses for wealthy Brazillian people.
-Paraty was the main location for the importation of slaves or Brazil, bringing in over 4million slaves mainly from Africa. The slaves were typically malnourished when they arrived so they were sent to be baptised (and converted to Christianity), trained and fed before being turned into alcoholics to make them dependant on the alcohol provided by their owners. It was very sad hearing about the scale of the slave trade at this place which had massive booms coinciding with the growth of coffee and gold trade (what was known as the Gold Trail passed through Paratay at one time).
- Cachaca was the main alcohol given to the slaves and it is the most popular alcohol today in Brazil because it is made from sugar cane which grows in abundance. The cocktail, caprihinas, are made with this alcohol with ice and lime.
-Portuguese roads have a central drainage channel whereas Spanish built has one on each side of the road. We saw this on the streets in the Old Town and saw how the cobble stone streets have been lifted and rebuilt (with the same stones) on two occasions to put in plumbing and lighting. The streets also full up with some water when it's high tide so the roads were brought up higher as well.
- The houses were decorated with pineapples on the outside which was a sign of wealth.
- The first openly gay mayor in Brazil was elected in Paraty in 2000 and, for this reason, many of the boats are painted in pink or rainbow.

After our very informative walking tour, we went out for dinner with the group where we tried the local dish of the the region, fish mocheta - a Thai curry style fish stew which was absolutely delicious (and huge!)

After dinner, we got a quick ice cream on our way to the beach bar in front of the hotel where we watched some dancing on the sand before going to bed.Read more