Paraty by caipirissima

Today was my first day back at the office after a week off with my mom in Rio and Paraty. Fortunately, the transition wasn't too bad since it is Labour Day in Brazil and the office was fairly quiet with no outside emails or phone calls.

As expected, our days in our first stop, Paraty, were perfect.

Founded in 1667, Paraty was the main port for gold and diamonds being shipped out of the interior of the country, as it was the only place that the mountains between the coast and the interior could be traversed. However, fifty years after its founding, it had already fallen into disuse due to the construction of a road between Rio de Janeiro and the mines which cut fifteen days transportation time off the route. Partially revived during the 19th Century coffee boom, Paraty is now a delightful and quaint tourist attraction, loaded with restaurants, artists' ateliers, simple colonial architecture, and ringed with mountains and beaches; all located 280 km south of Rio. As an added bonus we even got to see little monkeys playing in the trees!

The windows of Paraty

It's a funny thing. Living in a country as large and diverse as Brazil, I never know after visiting a place, if I will manage to visit it it again. There is so much to see and do that even the most beautiful locations may sometimes only be visited once. In the case of Paraty, it was my third time there, and I enjoyed it just as much this time around as I did the first and second times....