Veneza no Brasil
Our Portuguese is improving
06.02.2023
32 °C
We rely on our team of highly paid researchers and travel agents to plan our trips to coincide with important natural and cultural events so, when we arrived in Paraty, the Venice of Brazil, we were disappointed that no one had told us that the streets would only be submerged by the tide on the day of the full moon. And then we realised - today is the day of the full moon.
What a coincidence! As the moon hit its zenith at 3.28pm this afternoon, the waters poured into the streets and the happiest person was the horse-drawn taxi driver…
It’s not exactly the Grand Canal but everyone, including us, got wet feet. But it was warm and worth it...
Carnaval on Shrove Tuesday, (February 21st ) is probably the biggest, and drunkest, annual event throughout Brazil and we will be doing our best to avoid it in a couple of weeks time. However, colourful decorations are already going up in Paraty’s ancient streets…
The streets and buildings of Paraty are some of the most photogenic. But even the most beautifully painted doorway can be improved by the presence of a pretty young Brazilian woman…
Motor vehicles are only allowed into the historic part of the city for deliveries on Wednesday mornings, so it was easy to get traffic free pictures of the quaint houses with their terracotta roofs…
Paraty’s four churches date from the 17th and 18th centuries when this port city was built on the back of the gold trade…
Much of the gold from the world’s richest mines in the interior was shipped from here to Rio de Janeiro before being transported back to Portugal. However, the ships were often plundered by pirates whose hideouts were the surrounding bays and islands. A new road eventually took the gold directly to Rio to avoid the pirates and Paraty declined. Magnificent mansions were built during Paraty’s heyday and many are hotels today,,,
The town was revived by the coffee trade in the 18th century, but that too declined and was replaced by a new crop in high demand at the time – sugar. Also in high demand were slaves from Africa to work in the cane fields and Paraty thrived once more. But what to do when you have more sugar than you can ever eat? This man in Paraty knows…
With sun, sea, and unlimited bottles of ‘refreshment’ it’s very tempting to just stay here in this little paradise for the next few weeks, but would our readers and sponsors be happy about that?
P.S. If you want to watch the monkeys playing on the balcony of a beautiful apartment - try Calamar Flats on Jabaquara Beach.
Posted by Hawkson 15:37 Archived in Brazil Comments (1)