Weekend in Paraty

[Deleted]

On my trip to Brazil, I did something that I had not ever done before -- I made no research whatsoever, did not read any guidebooks and made absolutely no plans. This is extremely for me because I am opposite when I travel. I want to know all of the details down to the price of a bus ticket and what the electrical sockets look like.

Okay, I confess -- I did look up the electrical sockets because I have so many cables and things to charge now -- and also a collection of adaptors. As it turned out, Brazil has apparently been unable to choose a socket or an electrical current of its own, torn as it is between American and European influences. So its sockets are 'universal' for most of us -- taking American plugs, British plugs, European continental plugs. Electricity is 110 or 220 volts, apparently at random and sometimes mixed within the same dwelling. Therefore, every single socket that I saw had a label over it saying 110 or 220 to avoid nasty surprises.

I am getting off track, but anyway my lack of planning was due to the friend I was visiting, who seemed to have a schedule and an itinerary totally planned for me so there was clearly no reason to wear myself out coming up with alternative plans cribbed out of a book or off the internet.

And so we were off to Paraty for the weekend. All I knew about it was that it was on the coast and it was reputed to be extremely pretty. How were we getting there? "Do you mind driving?" I was asked. Of course not! My whole idea of a holiday was to drive several hundred kilometres out of a city of 16 million on totally unknown roads with signs in an unfamiliar language. Actually, the group would split up on Sunday night at the bus station and my friend and I would continue on to Rio Monday morning, which would also certainly be a treat for diving with a population of only about 8 million.

For technical reasons, we couldn't get the car until noon on Saturday and then our comedy of errors began. First of all, just when one of the group was getting into the car to start the trip, we were accosted by an old woman. It was a very hilly street and she wanted to know if we would be so kind as to drop her off on her own street, only about 300 metres away. There was a bit of hesitation since we were already running late (I don't even know why more time was wasted hesitating, since I couldn't understand the conversation). Finally, the old lady -- age 91 -- gets into the car and off we go. Everybody knew where the street was but since they were non-drivers they didn't know about "you-can't-get-there-from-here." The route was blocked by a giant thoroughfare with a concrete barrier to prevent getting across. So I had to go the long way around, discovering numerous one way streets which demanded a constant revision of my plans. It took more than 30 minutes to take that woman those 300 metres.

Then it was time to programme the GPS which everybody had insisted that I would need, except that nobody knew how to programme it and it got stuck in "demo" mode with a fictitious street scene rolling along on the screen and having absolutely no relation to reality. However, since our first goal was to just get out of the city and on to the motorway in the direction of Rio, I didn't really feel that I needed the GPS... yet. I had in fact looked up the main points of getting out of the city on the internet before we left -- north on Nove de Julho until it sort of turned into Prestes Maia which would lead into Santos Dumont. That would take us to the open sewer that used to be a river, and the expressway that ran along it went out of the city. After that, there would be signs, right?

Dream on. We crawled along in the heavy traffic while I was entertained by backseat drivers saying things like "I think you should have turned there" or "Do you know where you're going?" Unsuccessful attempts to work on the GPS were still being made, but it any case, even I was becoming convinced that we were definitely heading in the wrong direction.

It got even better when I was told "we have to go back -- I forgot some important stuff!" I am in a remarkable state of zen when I drive, so I dutifully managed to go back in the other direction and even find the way back to get the "stuff." Then I headed back out of the city. We had only lost about two and a half hours so far. Are we having fun yet?

This time it seemed to be that it was pretty important to actually find the correct road, so I started pushing buttons on the GPS, which I could only look at out of the corner of my eye if we were to remain alive as I drove along. Through some miracle, I found the correct combination and Fernanda started telling me where to go in Portuguese.

After so much adventure, we quickly stopped at a motorway restaurant for some sustenance.



The sun was already getting ready to set.



And very quickly we were back on the road.

One of the things we were supposed to have done was to follow the beautiful and treacherous coastal road, and we did in fact leave the motorway to do this, except in total darkness in pouring rain with patches of fog. However, I managed to get a few glimpses which indicated that the road is positively magnificent during daylight hours, sunny if possible.

As things turned out, we pulled into Paraty around 20:30. The place was really hopping on a Saturday night. Did we have hotel reservations? Of course not. However, there are so many hotels in the city that it turned out to be not too difficult at all to find rooms, although it was a bit more complicated to decide, since one place was nicely decorated but the people running the place didn't seem friendly at all, one convenient place had a cleanliness problem, a couple were overpriced compared to the competition... My companions seemed quite indecisive, so I finally pulled rank as the elder guest who would also soon be in need of an evening meal. It wasn't the fanciest place that we had seen, but the old man running it was very nice and even opened a seldom used gate in the wall so that we could safely park the car for two days. We referred to him as "the captain" since the name of the hotel was the Pousada Capitão.

That's my red car at the back.

[Deleted]

Paraty is one of the top tourist towns in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and it is easy to see why. The old section of town is a mixture of Portuguese colonial and Brazilian imperial styles, with buildings going back to the 17th century. The bay that it is on is dotted with small tropical islands, and boating excursions through the bay are one of the most popular activities. Yes, we'll get to a story of what can happen on these excursions a bit later. The town is also surrounded by tall hills covered with spectacular rain forests -- we didn't have time to visit them, but they are on my list for a future visit.

Having arrived so late, my first vision of Paraty was obviously at night.







There are food carts everywhere selling local snacks.

After being ignored at a couple of crowded restaurants full of drunken partiers, we went to a nice calm family restaurant, where I found the food to be excellent. My main item was bolinhos de peixe, a giant fish ball, made with salt cod and potatoes. I have no idea how it holds together for cooking, although it had about 8 toothpicks inside, which are obviously part of the necessary equipment. Anyway, it looked basically like this.

It came with salad, a bowl of beans, cabbage and cauliflower. The full meal with a beer was about 10 euros.

After dinner, we walked around some more.



There are lots of art galleries and the works of local artisans.





Liquor stores are another important part of this resort town.

[tod2]

That all looks so fabulous Kerouac! The narrow=ish cobbled stone streets and square buildings on either side remind me a little bit of Bo Kaap, the Malay Quarter in Cape Town except that is on a steep hill.
I was amused by your salt cod fish ball with all those tooth picks!

Your trip report and photos have not been a disappointment!! Looking out for more...

[Deleted]

The Capela de Santa Rita is on the waterfront.



There were art installations all over town. These were about space travel.











Away from the restaurants and bars, the town had become very quiet.



I was told that I would be highly impressed by all of the colourful paint in daylight.

[Deleted]

The next morning I knew that I would have at least an hour to myself for some solitary wandering. Here is the outer wall of the hotel.





There were some interesting shop windows.











Are you intrigued by why the streets look like this? It's because the town fills with water at high tide!

           

[Deleted]

If I may, I will backtrack just a moment to the previous night when we visited the bars and had more than our share of caïpirinha, which is the Brazilian national drink. It is a cocktail made with cachaça, a liquor made from sugar cane, to which you just add sugar and limes. For people who think that limes are just too tart (not me!), you can have it made with pineapple, tangerine, orange or even strawberry and kiwi. Cachaça is a distant cousin of rum but not as strong because it is usually 40° (80 proof) whereas rum is generally 50° or 55° in most of the world. Most people can drink two of these with no problem whatsoever. Once you get past three of them, the paving stones in a town like Paraty can start to become problematic.

In a place like Paraty, the standard price for a caïpirinha is 6 reals (2€ or $2.50).

[Deleted]

Now that you know why the others were still asleep, I will continue with my discoveries.





The surroundings were breathtaking. It was a shame not to have seen anything when arriving after dark.

[lagatta]

It is beautiful. Any women wearing high heels on those slippery paving stones?

How do people manage at high tide, given that the doors are flush with the streets?

[htmb]

Stunning views! I love the colorful paint and the pictures of low clouds.

[Deleted]

Oct 6, 2013 19:06:39 GMT lagatta said:

It is beautiful. Any women wearing high heels on those slippery paving stones?

How do people manage at high tide, given that the doors are flush with the streets?

I did not see any heels on women. Most people wear flip flops, sandals or athletic shoes. I have no idea how high tide is dealt with. I imagine that everyone is warned of tides that might cause a problem and that various items are kept off the floor.

I'm sure that the mangrove is very useful for protection from storms.

[Deleted]

The amazing doors of Paraty!









One of the most bizarre things I saw was two teenagers walking through town carrying skateboards.

[Deleted]

The tide must come a bit into town just about every day, even if not much.



















Sunday mornings appear to be quite calm just about anywhere.





















Chains separate areas where vehicles can limp along from those where they are forbidden.





I finally saw some men chewing the fat over their morning coffee.



There are evangelical churches on just about every Brazilian street.







And then I went back to the hotel for breakfast.

[Deleted]

Our first order of business after breakfast was to go to the bus station.

The buses to and from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are huge and luxurious. The fare to Sao Paulo was only something like 45 reals (15€). Night buses are quite popular, and the person leaving us chose a departure after 11 p.m. In another 10 years, there is supposed to be a high speed rail line between Sao Paulo and Rio, but it won't go through here, of course. Anyway, most Brazilians doubt that it will actually be built since rail travel disappeared from the country so long ago.

Then we walked to the port to book an excursion.







Apparently the sun was not going to come out after the dawn rain.









Luckily all of the boats leave at the same time (11:00) because the others were very indecisive about which one to take.



Finally we set off on our trip.

[Deleted]

It must be spectacular on a sunny day.









The bay is dotted with a multitude of tiny islands, often with a couple of houses on them.







Most of the boats are party boats full of wild young people.









There are plenty of fish.

[Deleted]

From the houses, it is pretty obvious that tropical cyclones are not a problem in this part of the world.



The boats dock at beaches several times during the afternoon.







Although about 40 boats leave Paraty, there are never more than 4 to 6 at any one location.







The wild tropical vegetation was a delight.



He-man breaks coconut for lady friend.

[Deleted]

Some private owners have to put up with people on "their" beach all day.

And so what happened? Well, our transfer craft was this little thing, and during the last beach trip, a lady to whom I will refer as Elephant Woman (no exaggeration) was placed at the end of the boat. Everybody else got on carefully, keeping a careful balance from one side to the other. This system had worked fine during the other transfers, in which Elephant Woman did not participate.

However, getting the boat to the beach by riding the correct breaker is a tricky deal, and that's where it all went bad. As we started riding the breaker onto shore, Elephant Woman's butt suddenly got soaked as the water carressed her generous forms. She shrieked in surprise and TRIED TO STAND UP! This instantly sent her overboard, but it made such a weight difference that two other people bounced into the water in reaction to this. I tried my damnedest to stay on board but after two more victims fell in, it was my turn. And that's how my cameras died.

If you look it up on the internet you will see that sea water is unforgiving to any sort of electronic device, particularly when you are still more than an hour away from any place where you could take any sort of corrective action. Naturally, a few people also had to offer their mobile phones to Poseidon in this incident. The boat company is completely covered because it was indicated on all of their brochures that transfers to and from shore were completely excluded from all coverage. Now we know why! (Still have to contact my own insurance company just to see how hard they laugh.)

Anyway, much to my surprise, my memory card was saved by travelling to Sao Paulo that night. I don't know what magic was used, but the pictures were waiting for me when I got back from Rio.

So here are the last three photos that my camera ever took.

[tod2]

Delightful, very interesting and enjoyable read! Up until now my imagination ran wild about the 'boat' that capzised..... I can see that happening in a dingy!
Paraty looks as if it could be a weekend break-away for people further inland or from Rio who want to party or just spend quiet time strolling along the beach. Those doors are wonderful!

[Deleted]

Since the tragic drowning of my cameras was the last stop that the boat made, we were back at the main dock before long. All of the other passengers kept looking at me as though I had lost a child rather than a camera, but except for losing all of my pictures (which you just saw), I frankly was not all that disturbed. While travelling around the world, I have been mugged (Johannesburg), robbed (Los Angeles, Malang), pickpocketed (Saigon), scammed (Madras, Tunis), extorted by the police (Dakar), almost taken hostage (Wadi Rum), as well as a few other events that are not to be placed in the "happy memory" column of my adventures, so being dumped into the ocean was really not very high on my list of possible tragédies. The worst thing that ever happened to me was when I was mugged in Paris (ha ha, the night before I was supposed to fly to Colombo, so it was almost a trip already), had my face completely smashed and spent a week in the hospital (and 3 weeks out of the office, which was nice, except for wearing a cast on my face and scaring people). Losing a camera? Not at all a problem.

So anyway, back on dry land, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes, which is when I distributed most of my clothes since I had all of my baggage with me and the others just had things for a day or two. We had an early dinner at absolutely the worst buffet restaurant in the entire world (and on top of that one that threatened to charge extra if there was anything left on your plate). I felt like I was six years old again and threated with a whipping because that was one of the hardest meals to finish that I have ever eaten and yet I had not overloaded my plate. But it was out of the question to pay extra.

Naturally, after walking around a bit (and seeing all of the photos that I would have wanted to take) it was caïpirinha time, yippee! This calmed anybody who was still feeling bad, and then we walked around some more. We came across the Paraty Cultural Centre, which was a remarkable colonial building with masked figures (not live but mannequins) standing out on the balconies to look at the passing crowds. Pig heads and lion heads, harlequins and devils. We went inside and saw one of the most remarkable displays of masks that I have ever seen, created by a myriad of local artists. They were on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, staring at you up and down the stairs. One of the artists was there working on new masks. He invited us to have a drink with him later at one of the cafés but unfortunately we did not follow through.

Going back down to the ground level, we discovered that a one-hour play was about to start, so we joined the spectators. Speeches were made by several cultural movers and shakers and all sorts of helpers were acknowledged. As for the play, with a cast of at least 20, don't count on me to explain it to you, but it was totally joyous and enthusiastic with excellent singing and dancing. It was not quite a professional production, but it was well above amateur theatrics. From what I could understand, the indigenous population and the colonial peasants are good and noble people. In spite of various hardships caused by people in power, happiness triumphs in the end, especially with the assistance of a bevy of patron saints. The last scene was a procession of rather strange saintly statues on the shoulders of the actors.

Then it was caïpirinha time again, yippee, and then time to return to the hotel, via the bus station as 11 p.m. was not far off.

More amusing adventures began the next day when my friend and I started by breaking the GPS just before heading in the direction of Rio. But I might have to write a new pictureless thread about that.

[tod2]

Yes PLEASE do write about your adventure to Rio! Have you ever seen a children's story book by Richard Scarry which features a story called "Going down to Rio" (or something similar)? That story could have been written about our trip - especially the airplane part........
so true to life it was almost scarey!

Where is your damaged camera now?

[Deleted]

The two dead cameras are still lying at the bottom of my bag. I don't want to touch them yet...

[tod2]

Oh dear! I have heard that if you drop your cell phone in water the first thing to do is drop it in a container of methylated spirits. This apparently dries out all the moisture. Maybe you could pull off another Lazarus with the cameras??
I'm sure you will check with a camera shop first!

[Deleted]

The cameras have now been corroding for a week.

[Deleted]

Oh my, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this thread!

haha... I can just imagine your face when discovering that you had to finish everything on your plate or be charged! ;D

I'm glad your spirits weren't to dampened after losing your cameras to the Ocean waters. At least you did get to save all these amazing photos for us to see.

Seeing those cobbled streets makes me want to be there. You write to well, Kerouac, keep my attention from start to finish.

Yes, want to hear about Rio!

[Deleted]

My insurance company called me today and implied that they would refund my camera, less a 125 euro deductible and a 10% per year depreciation. If so, they'll give me about 100 euros, which is 100 euros more than I expected. (I only filed a claim for one of the cameras since I couldn't find the bill for the older one, whose age would have made it mostly worthless anyway.)

[bixaorellana]

I HATE the fat lady!

Oct 6, 2013 10:27:53 GMT kerouac2 said:

... a giant fish ball, made with salt cod and potatoes. ... It came with salad, a bowl of beans, cabbage and cauliflower.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say how happy I am not to have been in the same room with you later that night.

My god ~~ Paraty is [insert many, many over the top adverbs here] beautiful! So glad you got up early & really got a look at the place. Were you tempted to stay forever & ever, or did you fear an aimless life shortened by too many caïpirinhas?

Oct 7, 2013 17:32:23 GMT kerouac2 said:

All of the other passengers kept looking at me as though I had lost a child rather than a camera

Good people!

[lugg]

Bloody hell - at least we got to see some of Paraty and SP before your "titanic" event. Really sorry K2 hope you do manage to get some recompense from the insurance company.

What a beautiful and colourful place, one I would like to visit. The views of the bay with the low lying clouds are just stunning.
It looks quite the place for anyone interested in birds too.

I had exactly the same thought as Lagatta and wondered if any women were mad enough to venture out in heels. It must be hard enough to stay vertical in flats particularly after the odd caïpirinha or three. I was also astounded to see the guy on a bike - ouch.

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your visit.

[Deleted]

I'm sure the local women would never be foolish enough to wear heels, but I bet some tourist women make the mistake.... once.

[nycgirl]

I'm just now seeing this delightful report. So many wonderful photos. I particularly loved that shot of the houses reflected in the flooded street. Paraty looks incredibly charming, with its vibrantly painted houses and cobblestone lanes. And $2.50 caïpirinhas? I would so love to party in Paratay.

I'm sorry to hear about your cameras. Almost as bad as the financial loss is the fact that you can't continue taking pictures. Glad these photos survived, though, and you have the right outlook about it.

This was your first trip to South America, am I right?

[Deleted]

Yes, that was my first trip to South America. But not my last.

[kerouac2]

I was pleased to learn today that Paraty has just been promoted to the status of Unesco World Heritage site.