Paraty

It was bound to happen. I have been to Brazil 3 times before and travelled the coast twice with out incident. My wonderful companion has always kept us directed succefully even though I tend to go left when I should go right etc. Paraty is a 1700's village Southwest of Rio and about 3 hours out or so we thought. After getting some bad directions we ended up on the Avenus of Brazil. This is a major hiughway that connects Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo. I normally never have a clue as to what road we are on but this one,m Brazil is proud of and they let you know it s name. The map showed we could just head to the coast where we needed to and hit Paraty. So we made good time going down the highway through the mountains. It was simply breathtaking with each curve giving way to beautiful green valleys. The gas stations all though sparten in some ways had all the conveniences of home with pop, chips and restrooms. I was sick of Coca Cola and was surprised to see my companion come out with a beer as a substitute. I was assured this was legal but it sort of sapped the fun, as it is ingrained in the US not to drink and drive.

Turning to the coast was no problem and we still had the fantastic mountains. But I was traveling in their winter so by 7 PM it was dark. Their is still a fari amount of traffic on the roads and the number of pedistrians is quite high. None of this was a problem until a thick fog formed in every hollow. Now the joy of twising mountain roads was ruined by fog and total darkness.

Then the pavement ended... yep we were now on a dirt road. Rigth at the edge of the pavement we asked directions to make sure this was correct. Several people had suggested Paraty as a destination so I was surprised to find that even the rental car clerk had thought it was good idea we traverse this rutted dirt road. The rental car was in no shape for steep climbs and just a few feet down the road I began to doubt our ability to turn around and make the climb back up. This was clearly a one way journey. We were now in thick woods going down a horrible dirt road in total blackness at about 2 MPH. It was very beautiful and when crossing a narrow bridge we stopped and listened to a water fall in the darkness. I frequently visit norther minnesota and the huge difference in insects is staggering. They have none. We were in what lloked like a verdent rain forest and we had the windows open and were poking a long. After an hour of this we both approached different levels of panic. She shared that the man had said it was 9 km on the dirt road. This was news to me and certainly helped. I also have traveled a fair amount of back woods roads and people don'tmake them unless they go somewhere. Did this one go the last practiving tribe of cannibals in Brazil? Well unfornately or fortunately we were going to find out. At what my best guess at 9 km's were still on the dirt. My companion though the seat back and attmepted to take a nap. I viewed this as the true blessing it was as most people would be screaming at the driver at the top of their lungs at this point. Just to give you idea. I vlaued the car at $3k in my head and figured i could just buy it, abandon it and take what ever means available back if this turned out to be the only route to Paraty. I later found out we had lost 2 hubcaps even though we never exceeded a few mph.

Honestly Paraty itself is going to get the short end of the stick as after the effort put forth to get there, it was sort of a blur. In the 1700's it was were they loaded the gold onto the boats to return to Portugal. Once Rio and Sao Paulo linked up the route changed and Paraty was just lost. (Still is by my standards or road construction) In the 1970's they restored the town and opened it for tourists. The pasadas are a little spartan but quaint and they fit the town. we did find live Jazz with fantastic food one night. I am always amazed when I run into a restaurant that is simply amazing way out of the way like this but I always try and enjoy them.

I am sorry Paraty, i am sure you have tons to offer but we were off to greener pastures and less arduous conditions.

Rio De Janeiro / Paraty / Angra / Copacabana / Buzios / Coba Frio / Ilha Grande