A Piece of Paradise in Paraty

A four hour bus ride from Rio is a small historic colonial town called Paraty.  With cobbled streets and brightly painted doorways, the town is charming and inviting, a nice change from the hustle of the big city.  Paraty is a quiet, relaxing, coastal town that quickly became a favorite stop.

We arrived in the evening and ate a grand dinner of gourmet pizzas on the beach along with beer.

After sleeping in and lounging around the hostel and beach, we made our way to an enchanted waterfall, surprisingly quiet for such a tourist town.

hanging at the first waterfall

at the second waterfall, making a hysterical attempt to get underneath it

with the help of a local with "sticky feet" we made it

the most funniest natural rock slide, locals running and skiing down on their feet!!!  I tried to insert the video here, but I'm not that blog savvy.  You'll just have to imagine.  It was completely crazy, dangerous, amazing!

Kinsey sliding down the sane way, on her butt

then we visited a cachaca distillery

cachaca is an alcohol made from sugar cane. it is available in lots of different flavors

cachaca is used to make caipirnhas which is Brazil's national drink
ingredients: cachaca, lime, sugar, and ice (fancier ones also come in strawberry, kiwi, pineapple and other options)

That night we said farewell to Kinsey who headed back to Rio early in the morning.  She was an excellent travel companion and it was so good to spend some quality time with her and catch up.

The next day we took a big schooner around to different islands in the area.  It was  absolutely paradise.

This guy serenaded us all day with interruptions for interesting facts about the area.

 We had amazing weather for the day

and we snorkeled in one of the top 20 snorkeling destinations in the world

there were lots of these little guys which are called Sargent fishes for their stripes

Graham doing a back flip off the top of the boat

my lunch of the BIGGEST prawns, so goooooood

It was quite literally a perfect day.  I highly recommend this little town. I wish we could've stayed longer.