Paraty church
The coastal drive from Rio to Parati was particularly scenic, passing lots of white roofed villages surrounded secluded fishing inlets, with clear blue waters splashing onto golden sandy beaches. Paraty (or Parati) is a town built between two headlands, with roughly cobbled streets and multicoloured houses.
The seafront is mostly boats for hire or places to buy exceptionally good Italian ice-cream, and all roads lead back to the main square, which looked like it was just winding down from the Carnival season.
Our hostel was a painful 15 minute walk over the headland, but was decent enough, supplying kayaks, live music and unlimited pizza, if not air conditioning or towels.
The three trucks have met up for the penultimate time here and on the first day all 60 of us wandered down to the harbour to board one of the party boats. This made me a little wary but we got there and the boat looked really quite decent. Even when another 40 random people got on board and space became limited I persevered, but when a DJ and a live band arrived and filled the back half of the boat with the largest speakers I’ve seen outside of Wembley the wiser amongst us jumped off and went back to the shore. Later reports said the band was ok, but no-one could talk due to the volume of the music – too much like an 18-30’s style holiday.
Instead I briefly wandered round town, had some lunch then eventually found my way back to the hostel, where I sat on the beach and happily read books and did some writing until the others returned, the under 25s having loved the boat, the others looking a bit shell-shocked.
The next day we went round town in a bit more depth, discovering that it’s been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the shops are not selling touristy items, but of a very high quality – even the Paraty T-shirts were designed by local artists and had they not had Paraty, Rio emblazoned on them in huge letter alongside the artwork I might have bought one.
We had a small lunch and some more ice cream then retired to the beach to build up an appetite for that evenings meal. It had been built up for some time as the best Thai food in South America as it was at a ladies house with a garden full of Thai herbs. The starter was amazing, but the main course was greasy and so-so, which was a shame, but she had an amazing house so we all had a good night out.
