Paraty - March 9th

Having seen the old town the previous day, all that remains left is the visit to the fort, and then onto one of the many beaches around Paraty.  The fort is not too far away from the old town so we walk to it fairly quickly, but it is fairly disappointing.  Even though it is up a hill there isn’t even the benefit of great views because there is so much jungle surrounding it.  However it is on the way to the beach so it isn’t that much time taken.

The beach we go to is Jabaquara.  This isn’t the best beach in Paraty, but it is the closest good one to town (the best beach is called Trinidade which is a half hour bus journey and an hour long walk away, this one is only 20 minutes’ walk).  It’s a nice long beach with trees at the back to provide shade, and shallow water which turns out to be quite warm.  I guess the difference this water is all in the bay of Paraty where previous beaches have been on the open ocean. 

And this is where we spend the rest of the day.  After discovering how extortionate the beach bars which line the beach are I get lunch at the local supermarket.  It is probably the first time we have really felt that a bar is taking advantage of its position.  In the evening, as it clouds over, we head back to our bed and breakfast.  An interesting feature of the weather on this part of the coast is that in the evening at about 4pm it always seems to cloud over.  Sometimes there is rain, sometimes there isn’t, but rarely can you stay out in the sun until sundown.  It’s not a problem, there is enough to go around in the day.

Our ‘bed and breakfast’ place in town also deserves a little explanation.  It is a strange place, its just four bedrooms (of which only ours and one other are occupied) and someone comes along in the morning to make breakfast.  It’s not like a hostel with a bit of buzz, or a normal B&B which is someone’s house, it’s a strange place.  In the evening we go to a German restaurant, although we have another local fish stew type specialty, and a lot of conversation with the German host and other German guests (and a passing guy from Galway who looked a bit bewildered to be dragged into the conversation).