Paraty

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Image:City of Paraty, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, church.jpg Image:Parati.jpg

Located on the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, Paraty is a very typical colonial city. Because of the beauty of the town and of the magnificence of the coast in this region, Paraty is a popular tourist area.

Paraty has kept the charm of its colonial past. The architecture of the city has not changed for 300 years: stone-paved streets, no cars, baroque churches, colonial houses...refurbished in most cases, and a few of them transformed in shops, bars and restaurants of various original goods...a lot of musical and poetry events, delicious seafood accompanied by cachaça (the Brazilian brandy made of sugarcane)...and charming people and places everywhere is the rule there. An atmosphere which is difficult to compare.

In fact, after the discovery of gold in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Paraty became the export haven of gold for Portugal. Thus, the city grew quickly and became very rich. However, eventually the gold trade moved from Paraty to Rio. Since then, Paraty has been out of the mainstream, that is why it did not change for centuries, until a highway was built from Rio to Santos, near São Paulo, when the city started his new cycle transforming a small almost abandonned city which lived on very limited economic activity, mainly fishing and agriculture (bananas, manioc, sugarcane) into what is now one of the "must see" touristic attractions in Brazil. The recent past is still at reach though, it is easy to rent a small boat for a day, for some 80 USD, and go fishing or only sightseeing, swimming, snorkeling, and let the driver, specially the old men there, tell you the stories of his life, as most of them are stilll fishermen, with a past of incredible adventures to share, the simplicity and the immediate friendship which has been the landmark.

The natural site of Paraty is very pleasant: the town is located in a bay and surrounded by woody mountais of the Serra do Mar. Numerous beaches and islands are easy to reach from there that would remind you of the good Robinson Crusoe! On the other side, up the "serra" into the rain forest where waterfalls and rocky rivers are a delight to visit after a day in the sun, and refresh your body sliding on an incredible stone tobogan, under the rainforest greenhouse-like trees.