The unexpected paradise of PARATY

Our itinerary changed slightly on the way to Rio. Rather than making a detour to Bonito, we decided to spend some extra time at the beach town and UNESCO World Heritage site of Paraty, half way between Sao Paulo and Rio. Boy oh boy were we glad with this change of plans. Paraty turned out to be an absolute beach paradise and we got to ´enjoy´ the Annual Pinga Festival.

Our campsite was just outside of town on a quiet beach with a few local bars. The coast was so beautiful that the first thing we decided to do was go on a kayaking tour of the area. We went off for around 5 hours, to a couple of islands, a wonderful beach restaurant (with quite simply the tastiest calamari we´ve ever eaten) and then back through a mangrove swamp (with quite simply the stinkiest mud we´ve ever smelt). We just couldn´t get enough of the superb coastline. Not that we´ve seen a great deal but we both agreed that it´s better than anything we´ve seen. On our second day we went off on a tour of an area called Trindade which was a beach heaven. Like a mix of the visual splendour of the Seychelles and the rural feel of the east coast of Zanzibar. Possibly with a touch of Jamaican vibe? We walked along a couple of beaches and made our way through a rainforest to some natural rock pools where we did some snorkeling. For the benefit of our female viewers I have posted the picture of the chap in the yellow costume.

The whole of our last day was spent on a schooner, travelling with our exodus group and 2 Dragoman groups (another overland company), making it a total of 34 people (22 of us and 12 of them). A perfect day of swimming, snorkeling and generally just stuffing around. The stuffing around continued into the evening and the next morning with us experiencing all that the Pinga Festival had to offer. Some great music, fantastic fruit drinks and the sugercane spirit of Pinga. When Baz Luhrman did his song about the benefits of suncream and all sorts of other things, he really should have spent a bit of time talking about Pinga. It is evil, please if you are ever invited to have some, say no and run.