Paraty...

Our flight from Lima to Rio de Janerio (Brazil) was an overnight flight and saw us landing in Rio at 6am - sometime between landing at Rio and getting into our transfer vehicle the sun rose....

First stop was breakfast before our 10am bus to Paraty.  That was an experience in itself...  In Brazil the main language is Portugese, and so whilst we were used to letting Zac or Milka translate for us, in Portugese they were almost as lost as we were.  So breakfast was an exercise in handsignals and saw us eating something similar to a beef croquette but with chicken instead and I don't think that the outside was actually potato either (something more glue-like lol!),  and the other was a HUGE fruit salad (2) with ham and cheese on top - I've never seen that before!

Our bus to Paraty (a 4 and a half hour trip) apparently took us along a winding road with some amazing scenery... I can't be sure as I managed to sleep from the minute the driver pulled out from the bus station (I didn't even see us leave the bus station) to the time when Zac woke me up to tell me that we were there - it seems the tiredness and crossing of time zones yet again had caught up with me!

I loved Paraty!  We stayed in a hostel across the road from the beach and just a short walk into the old town area. 

The old town has cobbled streets and high steps into the buildings so that when the tide is high, the water doesn't wash away the roads or flood the buildings. It had such a great feel to it and each time we wandered the streets we discovered something new.

We had a recommendation to try a local dish whilst in Paraty - Moqueca - Similar to a fish soup.  We found that many of the restaurants served it and after getting an explanation from a waiter, we decided to give it a go - YUMM!!!  We tried it twice (on 2 different nights at 2 different restaurants) but the first one was the best... there was not a drop left on our plates!

The boat trip that we took on our second day in Paraty was also amazing!!  The water was so clear and warm... Our trip ambled amongst the islands and inlets and stopped on a number of occasions for us to have a swim.

Another discovery at Paraty was Caiprihnis...  These are a lethal cocktail using a local spirit called Cachaca (also can be made with Vodka), lime and ice - no mixers in this one...  We stopped at the bar on the beach across from our hostel after dinner on the last night and had what Zac called a nightcap (it was midnight and we were on our way home to bed)... It turns out that 2 caiprihnis is more than enough... especially on the night before a 4 and a half hour bus ride via the winding road back to Rio...

I was sad to say farewell to Paraty!