I got a transfer with paraty tours leaving at 0830am from Rio de Janerio. The minibus was fairly new and clean seating 15 people however it was just me and one couple.
As left the city behind the landscape shortly changed to very green rolling hills and soon after a view of the coastline. Make sure to sit on the left! Unfortunately most of the drive it was raining. With blue sky the view would have been even better.
The couple got dropped off at a resort around half way through the 5 hour journey.
I chose a private room at sunrise Bella vista, costing 40€ a night with breakfast. It was located just a few minutes walk from the historical centre. I booked for 2 nights as I was unsure if I would go to Ilha Grande due to the weather and I wanted to get back to spend 2 days in Rio de Janerio before flying south to Curitba.
The hotel was great, the owner super friendly I’d highly recommend staying there.
In the afternoon I talk a walk around, the cobbled streets were picture perfect.
Then the heavens opened! It rained and it rained, until at 1800 boom lights out. No power. It was still pouring with rain but luckily the owned had left me an umbrella. Walking around the town everyone was walking around like lost sheep. Like it wasn’t a regular occurrence.
I found a street food vendor selling pork and cheese squewers I ordered one of each and a can of beer not knowing if I was going to get a next option. It cost 3€.
I noticed walking by closed restaurants that alot of the menus mainly were for 2 people and if you wanted for one it would cost 75%. This was frustrating as a solo travelling. Walking back to my hotel room I found one bar open with a generator running. I popped in for a beer and asked about the power.
In broken English the girl said the whole town and the next town the power was down probably til 5am and a plane came down. I have no idea if she got the words right guess I’ll find out in the morning. (Update it was a helicopter, sadly the pilot died in the crash).
After the beer I walked home, stepping in one too many puddles. Then decided it was time to sleep at 2030 as I couldn’t shower, couldn’t remember if the lights were on or off.
I’d been offered a jeep or boat trip the next day I already decided that I’ll just chill around the town as the next day I’m leaving for Ilha Grande. I pray the weather changes.
The next day I woke up to find the power was still down. It didn’t come back til 3pm that day. I had decided to cancel my trip to Ilha Grande and stay in Paraty for an extra 2 nights.
In the morning the hotel owner took me to some near by waterfalls on his motorbike, one of them was not like I’ve seen before like a huge sphere shaped rock with the water cascading down, turning into a toboggan.
On arriving back into Paraty the power came back on and the sun came out for a few hours.
Next day I took an excursion to ….. Where we basically walked along 3 beaches. All of them would have been stunning if it wasn’t cloudy and raining.
Sometimes when you travel it’s frustrating to imagine how good a place could be.
The final stop was a natural pool. This was around a 2km very muddy challenging walk. When we arrived it was PACKED. I called it the covid pool.
I stayed for a short while sitting on a rock with my mask on opted to pay for a boat back to the meeting point. Arriving back I had a fish stew it was super tasty and it came bubbling in a pot.
I had one more day in Paraty and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I was trying not to get downbeat about the weather but in 9 days id seen blue sky for just half a day.
My last day in Paraty and the sky was blue! I headed for the pier and bought a ticket for a boat trip, it went to 3 beaches and a swim stop. I paid 50 brazillian reals (8€). If you buy a ticket on the day you can haggle the price down. Normally it’s 100 reals.
The sun was out all day and the sea was warmer than I expected. As we were heading back to the pier we saw around 30 dolphins. Perfect end to the day.
In the evening I had a vegetable Thai green curry at Thai Paraty. It was incredible. Highly recommend stopping by there!
In summary I would definitly recommend visiting Paraty if you are staying in Rio. I found it a really unique place but I was also super excited to get back to the big city!
To travel is to live… 