For Christmas, i went back to brasil. the flights down there were crazy... i had to
spend a night in dallas en route to rio. once we got to rio we got ready for our little trip to paraty. paraty is an old portuguese colonial town that was the end of the gold road. in the 17th century the portuguese discovered gold in minas gerais and they shipped it out of paraty. paraty has that once prosperous and now sleepy country town feel... mostly cause we were there on a monday and tuesday right before christmas. today, it's a famous touristy place... and this chick even did her music video
there. the streets havent been worked on in ages. the "cobblestones" are uneven to the point of dangerousness. i tripped at least 5 times, and while clumsy, i'm not that clumsy. the lac
k of coherent cobblestones means half the time youre too busy looking down to appreciate the colonial charms. which is sad, because the colonial charms are really quite charming. i got to the point where i just stopped looking down, especially at night when the buildings were all lit up. the first day we wandered around the town, got our bearings, looked into the many, many stores. two of the best stores were the store full of brightly coloured hammocks, and the store that sold model boats that were built by local fishermen. the guy at the store said that making these models was the most profitable thing fishermen in paraty could do... the second most
profit
able thing was the boat tours they give, and a distant third is fishing... so, making model boats is pretty good, they paint them to look like their own colourful boats and then sell them to people. the little boats are in this big rambling store it was three or four rooms, several with people actually painting hulls, and then every other store in paraty sold the little model boats. the thing to do in paraty is go on a boat ride. the boats take you out to several islands in the bay and you can go swimming and all that sort of good stuff... apart from just being underway. 1045 every morning the pier
is crammed with fishing vessels and the hustle and bustle of people going to boats theyd prebooked or trying to find a boat the day of. the boats are all crammed onto the pier... only a few are actually there to go fishing. the port captain is out in civilian clothes and his marinha do brasil port captain hat. the boats are all med-moored. which means their sterns face the pier and they set their anchors out. the boat we were going to go on was called the sir francis drake... i found alot of humour in the fact that a portuguese boat in an old gold port was named after drake who all the spanish thought was a pirate... portugal was part of spain back then
because of the unified iberian crown, so it was funny to me. there were problems of some sort with the sir francis drake, so we were transferred to the soberano do costa, sovereign of the coast... despite the high sounding name, this was a nice 80-90 foot two masted schooner. they had awnings rigged from the booms of the schooner, so no sailing... just diesels... and off we went for 5 hours of waterborne fun... not bad for 30 reais (about 17 bucks.) once we got away from the pier and the river next to the town the water started to clean up. we passed contiki restaurant, which is a ra
ndom island on a rocky island in the bay, and kept going til the water got super pretty and the schooner anchored and after a very brief (and apparently funny safety brief in portuguese) "if you dont know how to swim, you wont know how this year, so dont try to learn now." since i knew how to swim, it wasnt a major concern, and into the clear blue water i went. no mask, no snorkel, just good old fashioned fun. after the island swimmin hole, we stopped at a beach. with really clear water. if you didnt want to swim to the beach, you could take their little boat. i'd call it a rhib, but, i really dont think its that rigid of a hull. so, i'll call it an ib. i didnt know we could swim, so i wound up in the boat with all t
he girls... which was mildly embarassing... so, i swam back to the boat on the way back... eventually, our time on the boat finished... so, we walked back up to our hotel and took a little break... i.e. got to lay in the hammock and rest for awhile. love hammocks. and the hammock at our pousada overlooked the city. we were on the major hill overlooking the town... not far from the fort of perpetual defense... seriously, the fort that guarded the town was named Forte Defensor Perpétuo. the walls for the most part have been torn down/erroded... probably used in people's houses. the only thing still standing there are about 2 feet of walls and a buildin
g. so that was an interesting thing to see, lots of old cannons, not so much else... nice view, but similar to our hotel. not entirely sure how this fort could command the bay since it seems most of the guns pointed towards the town... but, maybe it made more sense back then...
we ate at a restaurant called ramdam cafe. if you're ever in paraty, i reccomend eating there on rua do commercio. its owned by a portuguese expat lawyer who is a pretty interesting and friendly person. we ate there twice in two days. the prices were reasonable, the food was great, and the service amazing. the first night they had a special nathalie loved, and they also had another dish nathalie loved, and she couldnt decide, so they gave her half of each... and didnt charge anything extra. in a town of inflated restaurant prices (our two meals there cost between 20 and 30 dollars for both of us)... and we were ordering as much as we wanted. drinks, appetizers, the most expensive things on the menu. and if you like crazy/bizarre foods, ramdam cafe's desert choice is ice cream...
gorgonzola icecream. if you're curious, our portuguese friend will bring out some for you to try gratis. i think you should try it. it's good for a bite or two... but, then it starts to become a bit too much.
the name ramdam comes from the first 3 letters of each of their names... but i forgot them... go to paraty, take a boat ride, and eat at ramdam cafe... what more could you want?
spend a night in dallas en route to rio. once we got to rio we got ready for our little trip to paraty. paraty is an old portuguese colonial town that was the end of the gold road. in the 17th century the portuguese discovered gold in minas gerais and they shipped it out of paraty. paraty has that once prosperous and now sleepy country town feel... mostly cause we were there on a monday and tuesday right before christmas. today, it's a famous touristy place... and this chick even did her music video there. the streets havent been worked on in ages. the "cobblestones" are uneven to the point of dangerousness. i tripped at least 5 times, and while clumsy, i'm not that clumsy. the lac
k of coherent cobblestones means half the time youre too busy looking down to appreciate the colonial charms. which is sad, because the colonial charms are really quite charming. i got to the point where i just stopped looking down, especially at night when the buildings were all lit up. the first day we wandered around the town, got our bearings, looked into the many, many stores. two of the best stores were the store full of brightly coloured hammocks, and the store that sold model boats that were built by local fishermen. the guy at the store said that making these models was the most profitable thing fishermen in paraty could do... the second most 
profit
able thing was the boat tours they give, and a distant third is fishing... so, making model boats is pretty good, they paint them to look like their own colourful boats and then sell them to people. the little boats are in this big rambling store it was three or four rooms, several with people actually painting hulls, and then every other store in paraty sold the little model boats. the thing to do in paraty is go on a boat ride. the boats take you out to several islands in the bay and you can go swimming and all that sort of good stuff... apart from just being underway. 1045 every morning the pier 
is crammed with fishing vessels and the hustle and bustle of people going to boats theyd prebooked or trying to find a boat the day of. the boats are all crammed onto the pier... only a few are actually there to go fishing. the port captain is out in civilian clothes and his marinha do brasil port captain hat. the boats are all med-moored. which means their sterns face the pier and they set their anchors out. the boat we were going to go on was called the sir francis drake... i found alot of humour in the fact that a portuguese boat in an old gold port was named after drake who all the spanish thought was a pirate... portugal was part of spain back then
because of the unified iberian crown, so it was funny to me. there were problems of some sort with the sir francis drake, so we were transferred to the soberano do costa, sovereign of the coast... despite the high sounding name, this was a nice 80-90 foot two masted schooner. they had awnings rigged from the booms of the schooner, so no sailing... just diesels... and off we went for 5 hours of waterborne fun... not bad for 30 reais (about 17 bucks.) once we got away from the pier and the river next to the town the water started to clean up. we passed contiki restaurant, which is a ra
ndom island on a rocky island in the bay, and kept going til the water got super pretty and the schooner anchored and after a very brief (and apparently funny safety brief in portuguese) "if you dont know how to swim, you wont know how this year, so dont try to learn now." since i knew how to swim, it wasnt a major concern, and into the clear blue water i went. no mask, no snorkel, just good old fashioned fun. after the island swimmin hole, we stopped at a beach. with really clear water. if you didnt want to swim to the beach, you could take their little boat. i'd call it a rhib, but, i really dont think its that rigid of a hull. so, i'll call it an ib. i didnt know we could swim, so i wound up in the boat with all t
he girls... which was mildly embarassing... so, i swam back to the boat on the way back... eventually, our time on the boat finished... so, we walked back up to our hotel and took a little break... i.e. got to lay in the hammock and rest for awhile. love hammocks. and the hammock at our pousada overlooked the city. we were on the major hill overlooking the town... not far from the fort of perpetual defense... seriously, the fort that guarded the town was named Forte Defensor Perpétuo. the walls for the most part have been torn down/erroded... probably used in people's houses. the only thing still standing there are about 2 feet of walls and a buildin
g. so that was an interesting thing to see, lots of old cannons, not so much else... nice view, but similar to our hotel. not entirely sure how this fort could command the bay since it seems most of the guns pointed towards the town... but, maybe it made more sense back then...
we ate at a restaurant called ramdam cafe. if you're ever in paraty, i reccomend eating there on rua do commercio. its owned by a portuguese expat lawyer who is a pretty interesting and friendly person. we ate there twice in two days. the prices were reasonable, the food was great, and the service amazing. the first night they had a special nathalie loved, and they also had another dish nathalie loved, and she couldnt decide, so they gave her half of each... and didnt charge anything extra. in a town of inflated restaurant prices (our two meals there cost between 20 and 30 dollars for both of us)... and we were ordering as much as we wanted. drinks, appetizers, the most expensive things on the menu. and if you like crazy/bizarre foods, ramdam cafe's desert choice is ice cream...
gorgonzola icecream. if you're curious, our portuguese friend will bring out some for you to try gratis. i think you should try it. it's good for a bite or two... but, then it starts to become a bit too much.
the name ramdam comes from the first 3 letters of each of their names... but i forgot them... go to paraty, take a boat ride, and eat at ramdam cafe... what more could you want?
