paraty

My first day in Parati was absolutely amazing. My new friends from London, Jo and Charlie have adopted me as their new friend here and together we had a couple of things to do while we were here. Our hostel and pousada (old house with rooms for rent) is wonderful; on the beach, near the downtown area, and Mel, the Canadian woman running the place, is a fantastic source of knowledge for us!

The first point of interest was a short walk through town and our day would continue with a bike ride up to a waterfall. Since we arrived at night, we had a whole lot more to look at in the morning when the sun was out!

This town is simply wonderful. There is a class and character about the colonial architecture that invite anyone to stroll their streets. The downtown area is blocked off to traffic; allowing only pedestrians and bikes through. The long white buildings with brightly colored doors and windows are nearly perfect and pleasant in every way. Each room in these long buildings has a shop or restaurant behind it. Many are curious places to poke my head into! The shop keepers are polite, kind, and very helpful. The town is extremely safe and lovely to wander through.

We had our bikes rented and rode 9km out of town and into the hills. The trees and forests thicken as we continue to ride upwards and our legs get quite tired as well! We took a couple of breaks, but eventually made it up to a church; our landmark that we could get off our bikes and find the trail to the waterfall.

It was a short walk, in flip flops and we found a small group of men from Europe gathered at the waterfall as well. This particular set of falls is on a very large rock that has been invaded by algae. This makes the rock extremely slick; very difficult to even walk on. It's also great for sliding down into the pool of water below. Charlie went first and it seemed to be a nice, leisurely ride down. So, I put on my shorts (so I wouldn't get my new white swimsuit dirty), and tried it myself. I actually picked up quite a bit of speed on the way down and by the time I hit the cold water, I was quite exhilerated with the experience. It was a great reason to bike up into the hills!

The way down the to town was great; and much faster. We returned with my bike in exactly the right amount of time.

In the evening, I took a short walk on the beach and then the three of us went out for a Brazilian steak meal. We found a restuarant, Netta, upon someone else's recommendation which offered us a discount.

This is a part of Brazil that I am grateful I came to see. The ocean puts me to sleep, the scenery (beach to forest) is simply fantastic, and I am able to feel rested and completely refreshed!