Paraty was our third stop on the tour. It is a quaint little town, that I didn’t think I’d like a lot. But as the tour went on, and ended, and I came back, I found myself thinking and talking about Paraty non-stop. It probably was one of the best cities on the tour (barring Rio of course!).

Getting to Paraty, was probably the hardest part of the entire tour. You first fly from Iguassu Falls to Sao Paulo. This is roughly an hour and a half flight, which is the easy part. Following this, you get on a bus and drive for 6 hours through windy roads. As I get older, I find that my tolerance for long drives, flights and everything in between gets lower. I find myself feeling very restless, just wanting to get to the destination. If I could afford a transporter and with the click of a button, poof, I’d be in my destination, I would get a mortgage to buy one. You do stop a couple of times on the way to Paraty, once to eat and the other to snack, stretch your legs etc.

Once I got to Paraty, I was quite tired, and after such a long journey, I was expecting to walk in to a 5-star hotel, with a massive bath, in which I’d relax for the next 2 hours before I went out to dinner. That did not happen. Pousada Laguna Blue is a 3-star hotel and does not have a bath. To me it felt a bit small and took some time getting used to, but once I settled in to the room it was perfectly okay. This hotel is roughly a 30-minute walk from the town centre, and there is another hotel across the street.

The group walked down to the town centre to go to dinner. The walk down, was along a dimly lit street, but as there was a football game that night as part of the Copa America (Brazil v/s Argentina), the streets were full. The town centre is a cobble stoned town, and perfect for Instagram (and different filters)! It is a maze, and I did get lost that first night. But like, I was travelling to a new city, so did I really get lost or just explore a new part of the city? I’d like to think the latter. It is a maze, however, it is basically a ‘town square’ it’s a matter of walking from side to side.

Paraty is known as the Venice of Brazil. Do you know why? The town centre is cleaned naturally every day. As the town centre, is next to the sea, every day when there’s a high tide (twice a day), the water floods the town centre, and as the tide goes down, so does the water level in the city. Having to walk through the flood after a boat trip was not fun, but a unique experience nonetheless.

I feel Paraty is a place, where I could have spent at least another day just relaxing. There are good shopping options, places to eat and more. In terms of things to do, you can do guided walks around the city to understand more about the history, and there’s a jeep tour available. I opted against the group tour, as I really only had one full day and you have to do the activity on this day, and I highly recommend the boat tour. If you’ve not had enough of waterfalls after the Iguassu Falls, you can go on the jeep tour and see one or two more, but nowhere near the size of the Iguassu Falls. Tip from fellow tour mates, that woke up early in the morning to go check-out the sunrise, if you are an early bird and can do it, then go check it out.

I quite liked Paraty, and whilst I’m not sure how realistic it is to go back to a small town (I mean I’ve been to Queenstown in New Zealand about 7 times), I hope my wandering feet take me back to this beautiful little town.

Until next time,

MiliG