Boat trip around Paraty Bay, Brazil
Brazil,  Independent travel,  Outdoor Activities,  Photography,  South America,  Travel Blog

Boats, Bugs, Booze And Not Doing Things By Halves: Days in Paraty

March 22, 2024 /

Just as we’re fearing a stifling night without AC, the lights come back on and we can hear the sound of cheering from neighbouring houses – this has been the second lengthy power outage in our first few days here, brought on this time by the afternoon thunderstorm and lasting until bedtime. It’s been handy then that the Caborê Brewery is only just down the road: brewery means generator which means cold beer and a restaurant which is open, saving us a walk through the rain to those areas unaffected by the outage.

This local beer at Caborê isn’t at all bad, either: more pricey than the ubiquitous Brahma but a real step up in flavour and quality. Also up in flavour, it seems, is our flesh. The local insect community is relishing the opportunity to feast on European meats and is busy leaving little red mountains anywhere on our bodies where they feel like doing so. Michaela is clearly more of a tasty treat than I am, suffers much more than me and spends half of every hour scratching and the other half trying not to. So much for that repellent spray we brought with us which was supposed to be a good one. It’s clearly losing its battle against the Insect Air Force.

Paraty harbour, Brazil
Paraty harbour

You can never be entirely sure about organised boat trips, they can be overpriced disappointments which turn out to be a waste of a day or sometimes rowdy affairs with loud music and too many young people drinking too much booze. Or they can be like our near perfect day with Paraty Tours, on a little wooden schooner with less than twenty passengers on board, which is a delightful tour of five of the hundreds of islands which lay just off the coast here. 

Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Island in Paraty Bay
Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Dropping anchor

Dropping anchor about a hundred yards from shore each time gives us the opportunity to swim from boat to secluded beach, rest a while, spend time inspecting exotic sea shells and wallowing in the water and then swim back to the boat – in the, wait for it, warm Atlantic. Now there’s two words you don’t find together too often. With efficient, well organised staff, clear instructions, decent companions and a perfectly acceptable moqueca freshly prepared on board, it’s a very enjoyable day all round.

Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Islands in the bay
Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Islands in the bay

It seems some of these islands are privately owned, with Paraty Tours and other operators being granted a licence to call in on excursions like ours. Each such island has an impressive house close to the shore – but we ponder on what it is actually like to spend time, even just a few days, in a place where there is just your house and literally nothing else. There’s no running to the brewery here when the storm comes, that’s for sure.

Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Paraty Bay
Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Paraty Bay

And the storms do come. Even on the clearest, bluest of mornings, heavy cloud gathers menacingly along the top of the mountains, creeping slowly towards Paraty through the day and, at the same time, darkening ominously. The downpours might start around 4pm, or on other days wait until it’s time to head out for dinner and send everyone scurrying for doorways, bars or, indeed, breweries. Or threaten but never arrive, as on our fifth day here.

Island in Paraty Bay, Brazil
Paraty Bay
Ailing around the Islands of Paraty Bay in Netuna I, Brazil
Swimming back to our boat

Our second day out courtesy of Paraty Tours is almost as good as the first: a Jeep tour deep into the forest within the Serra da Bocaina national park for short hikes to roaring waterfalls and dips in the powerful currents of the cold mountain torrent. Plunging into the colder waters – cold but not icy – is so good in the middle of a humid day. It soothes Michaela’s insect bites too. Walking back to the Jeep through the forest, a real treat as we see our first marmoset. It’s too quick for us to get a photo, but we had been looking forward to seeing these oh so cute creatures, and here is our first, scaling a bamboo and disappearing into the canopy above.

Walking amongst bamboo, Brazil
Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil
Inside the rainforest

Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil
Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil
Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil
Waterfalls in the forest

Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil
Waterfalls near Paraty, Brazil

We call in too at a small cachaça distillery, set amongst fields of the sugar cane from which the drink is distilled. Cachaça is, of course, the spirit of caipirinha, the cocktail which turns out to be just as popular here as the guidebooks would have you believe – absolutely everybody is drinking it. Personally I think cachaça is perfectly drinkable neat and unadulterated, but here at the Pedra Branca distillery there is a whole gamut of flavours to try, like vanilla, banana, coffee, chilli…as well as several versions of the original. 

Pedra Branca cachaça distillery, near Paraty, Brazil
Pedra Branca cachaça distillery, near Paraty, Brazil
Pedra Branca cachaça distillery, near Paraty, Brazil
Pedra Branca distillery

The tasting is fun and of course we fall hook, line and sinker for the marketing ploy, arriving home with a tasty little collection which we absolutely didn’t intend to buy. Caipirinha cocktails here are so much stronger, wow they pack a punch. Where caipirinha back home, and in most other places we’ve tried it, is a lemon drink with a dash of cachaça and a spoonful of sugar, here the quantities are reversed – you get a huge slug of alcohol and just a hint of a lemon undertaste.

Pedra Branca cachaça distillery, near Paraty, Brazil
Pedra Branca cachaça distillery, near Paraty, Brazil
Lots of Cachaça

But then that’s Brazil, really. Cocktails that make your eyes water, bold food combinations, meals that are so big that you could just buy one portion, share it between two and still be satisfied, people that dance in the street and music everywhere, flamboyant soccer, heat and humidity, heavy rain and colossal paradise beaches.

They don’t do things by halves here.

Cachaça
We bought these
Drinking caipirinha in Paraty
We drank this

You May Also Like

Paraty, Brazil

Hello Again Brazil: Discovering Paraty

March 18, 2024
Rio Carnival Sambadrome

24-Hour Party People: Up All Night In Rio

February 16, 2024
View of the tropical fjord from the top ofPico do Pão de Açucar

High Climbs & High Tides: Last Days In Paraty

March 25, 2024

51 Comments

We’d love to hear from you