Paraty, A Colonial Town Stopped in Time

The first thing you notice when you arrive in the old town of Paraty are the haphazard, mismatched stone streets. Everyone walks around in flat shoes staring intently at the ground trying not to fall over or twist an ankle.

Legend says that the Portuguese came over on a ship, knowing they would be bringing back gold on their return journey. To accommodate for the weight, they used rocks of all kinds as ballast on their trip over from Portugal. When they arrived here in Paraty, they dumped out all the rocks, and then used them to create the streets in town. Stones of all shapes, types and sizes were used, with no thought in how to make it a smooth and comfortable path. Cars are now forbidden in the old town and only bicycles and horse and cart teams carry in goods.

The buildings are beautiful with whitewashed walls and brightly colored doors and window frames, an old colonial holdover that was forgotten and preserved with only a small population of locals in the 1800s. It was only recently 'rediscovered' thanks to a new fancy highway built in the 1980s. Now it is a fairly well known tourist destination for locals and internationals alike. It's perfect for a romantic getaway with it's many small shops and restaurants, several of which have tables on the street to facilitate people watching (and street artists!). The street artists range from musicians to contact jugglers, to a strange dance involving two people and one weird-bordering-on-scary life-sized half puppet with dancing and lip-syncing. It was never a dull moment, to say the least.

Paul and I were using Paraty as a rest stop on our trip. We declined the offer to go on boat rides, or day trips or hikes of any kind. Instead we bummed around the pool, used the Internet to catch up on things, got massages, used the steam room and sauna, and only lazily wandered the 20 minutes down the river and into town when our stomachs were grumbling and it was time for dinner. We were never disappointed with our food choices (Italian, Thai, traditional) or the kindness of the people when we tried to speak our four known words of Portuguese. 

One of the best parts of this three night stopover was the owner of our hotel. Ben was originally from England but hadn't lived there in many years. He was helpful, kind, and interesting to talk to. He made sure that anything we needed, we got, and every question we had was answered. It felt like a little piece of home to be able to talk to him and with such a comfortable hotel (Bambu Bamboo was the name, in case you're thinking of visiting!), we were well refreshed and ready for our next little adventurous stop: Trindade.