Adventures in Paraty

The next morning we grabbed the 10am ferry from the island back to the main land to a town called Angra Dos Rios where we would get a bus to take us the 2hour ride to Paraty. Paraty is another beach town a little further south that had come highly recommended as a place to visit by a few American girls we had met back in Peru. It is famous for being home to about 50+ beaches in the surrounding area and for the charming and picturesque setting of the "Old Town" section of the city that has been preserved from the colonial time, uneven cobble stones and all.

The Charming Cobblestone streets in Old Town

The river canal headed into the Ocean

Once arriving in Angra dos Rios we set out on foot to the bust station until another traveler informed us that it was about a 30min walk - Not with our packs it is not, so instead we grabbed a cab and took the 5min ride instead. We were under the impression that there was a bus company there that had tickets to Paraty but it seemed that even though they still advertising them in the station they were no longer running that route so we needed to take the city bus from that station. We waited for a few buses to come and go that were all full and finally after seeing 2 buses go by we decided that we were going to squeeze in the 3rd even though it was standing room only. So gear and all we inched our way onto the bus and grabbed standing positions for the 2 hour ride. Luckily for us the bus started to clear out about half way through so we were able to get seats for the last hour. 

We had not booked any accommodations before we arrived in Paraty so we found a guy at the bus station who worked at a hostel and we took us there, however the joint was full. He took us on a little walking tour around the town to a few other hostels that "he likes" aka that his buddies work at our own and all of there were either full or massive dumps. Kait and I then decided to head out on our own while the boys waited with our bags to check out a few of the Pousadas instead. These can usually be a bit more expensive, like up to 150 Reals - 180 Reals/ night but when 4 people share the cost it works out to being not much more that a hostel anyways. We found one that suited our needs, even had a mini pool, which was key for us since we were sweaty messes from trekking all over town. After checking in and getting settled we took off to explore the town and decide what to do for the day. Much like in Ilha Grande there is a beach right in the town where everyone stays but it is not as nice as the beaches in the surrounding areas.

Since we had loved our boat cruise in Ilha Grande so much we decided on another boat cruise for the next day. This one was a bit different, it was on a Schooner boat and was only about 5 hours long visiting 2 secluded beaches and 2 islands in Paraty Bay. I won't say that we were disappointed by the beaches in Paraty because they were stunning, but we were a bit spoiled just 2 days before from our Island tour with Giovanni in Ilha Grande, if I were going to be in that area first I would start in Paraty and then move to Ilha Grande - that would be the perfect build up to finding paradise on earth.

Pulling up on the first of the Beautiful beaches of the day

What our boat looked like for the day

A private home on one of the islands

Enjoying our time on the boat

Panoramic view of 2nd beach for the day

After returning back to the docks in Paraty Jonny and I walked around the old town a little more and then went to check out the local beach before heading back to the Pousada. Kait wasn't feeling well that evening so she stayed back while the remaining 3 of us headed out to dinner in Old Town. We ended up at this great pizza spot that had an amazing quinoa salad, wood-fire oven pizzas and live music.  We discussed plans for the next day and it sounded like J.J and Kait were going to take a kayak tour around the bay and Jonny and I were going to head out to another beach nearby on the bus. Unfortunately all these plans came to a screeching halt through the night as it seemed whatever bug what started to affect Kait that day had then spread to me too. I will leave out the gory details but we took turns bring back up all the delicious meals we had that day. The next day I could not even get out of bed, just impossible so we stayed in all day. Jonny and I decided that we would head to Sao Paulo a day early since it didn’t look like we were going to get in any more beach time in my condition and he needed to find a place to get his tickets taken out as they were already a day overdue. After spending the entire day in bed I was able to drag my butt the 5 min walk to the bus station, poor Jonny had to carry ALL of our gear the whole way, and I settled in for the 6 hour bus ride with a couple gravols to help me make it. We made it to Sao Paulo without incident and I unfortunately had to spend the next day in bed all day again before I started to feel human again. 

OOO_Talia