A Portuguese paradise

After joining our tour group in Rio we drove to the heritage-listed town of Paraty. This is a perfectly preserved Portuguese colonial town about four hours south of Rio. A truly photogenic town of old white buildings, colourful painted doorways, window sills, and trims, located on bone-jarring cobblestone streets.

Paraty is older than it looks. It was founded in 1597. Over time it developed into a regional centre for Portuguese colonists in the surrounding area. Its impressive array of colonial buildings sprang up after the discovery of the world's richest gold mines in the mountains of Minas Gerais in 1696. Paraty rapidly became a major export port for gold and a supply port for the mines. 

Interestingly, the precious metal was first transferred on coastal ships to Rio de Janeiro and from there on to Portugal. Apparently, the harbour wasn't suitable for larger sea-going vessels. The city briefly boomed again when the coffee trade picked up and again more recently thanks to sugar cane farming. Today tourism is Paraty’s major economic contributor.

On our first day in town our guide took us for a brief walk through the town’s historical waterfront district. Perhaps the most memorable sight is Capela de Santa Rita, the oldest church in Paraty. This all-white structure, trimmed in yellow, was completed in 1722. This was the local church of the freed slaves and freemen, or former slaves. It reminded me of the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Guia in Macau. Its white bell tower can be seen for miles and is instantly recognizable in promotional tourism images.

The town is set in a harbour full of islands. Our guide suggested we hire a boat and visit a few of them. However, our harbour cruise the following day mainly involved swimming, soaking up the sunshine, and drinking copious amounts of Caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink. It was rapidly becoming apparent that our guide’s idea of a good time was a cliche backpacking experience.

Upon our return to shore we saw the town's unusual street-cleaning ritual in action. The streets in Paraty’s historical district are swept clean by the rising tide twice a day. Although, we later learned that the flooding we’d witnessed only happens a few times a month. It takes a full moon and an accompanying king tide to set things in motion. As the king tide peaks it sends water flowing down the town's colonial streets through special openings in the harbour seawall. These openings are set slightly above the average high tide mark to avoid flooding the town every day.

The waterline image above was taken during our boat trip. I captured it with considerable care.  I wanted to preserve the spirit of our idyllic day sailing around Baia Carioca. I grabbed my digital camera and without any water protection swam ever so carefully into the bay to turn and take the photo you see here.

Sadly, not every memory of Paraty was a positive one. A group of us went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant on our final night. We naively assumed a seafood-based meal in a coastal town was a guaranteed winner. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The fish and the ingredients were anything but fresh. In the end I ate little more than rice and noddles. 

After two nights in Paraty, we headed south to San Paulo. The drive took more than five hours, with the last hour spent crawling along a freeway jammed with traffic on the outskirts of San Paulo. Shortly after leaving Paraty we stopped briefly to admire Cachoeira da Escada. This is a cascading waterfall on the edge of the Rio-Santos highway, about 27 km south of town.  The base of the main fall is protected by a slightly disheveled statue of Oshun. She’s the queen of freshwater, rivers and waterfalls. You’ll find her halfway up the falls in the first image above.