Hey there! I've always wanted to write about my trip to Brazil in 2019 so I thought I'd dig up some pictures and tell a piece of the trip here. For a little background, before my girlfriend entered her DPT program last summer so we decided to finally take up her sister's offer and come visit her sister in Sao Paulo, Brazil. At the time I was working at a company with unlimited PTO, so we decided in May of 2019 to take a 3 week trip to Brazil. During our time there her sister planned a road trip during one of the weekends heading north through the mountain town of Cuhna, where we spent a night and into the state of Rio to visit a city called Paraty. More on other adventures later, but moving forward this post is all about Paraty.
Paraty, founded around 1500, is on UNSECO's Worth Heritage List and is unofficially recognized as the halfway point between Sao Paulo and Rio De Janero. As you near the city center the streets become made of stone and all motorized traffic is barred leaving just foot traffic and the occasional horse. As we descended from the mountainous jungle into Paraty it started as a few small pousadas (bed and breakfasts) here and there with a restaurant in between, it seemed like most small Brazilian towns I had seen on the road trip so far. But as I made my way to the city center I realized this was unlike anything I had seen before.
Our lodging for the next two days was about 10 miles or so out of the actual city center, towards the jungle and accessible by a one lane dirt road in and out. More on this later, first we had to explore the city itself and get some lunch before heading out into the jungle, but was also near a beach. After a bit of a bumpy ride to find some parking we were ready to explore on foot. To paint the picture, the group consisted of my girlfriend and me plus her sister, husband and 2-3 month old baby. As we explored for a bathroom and eventually a place to eat I couldn't stop smiling at this cool little town I had been brought too. The streets made of stone, merchants everywhere selling their goods, music in the distance and food on every corner
After a walk around and a few snacks and a few souvenirs purchases we decided to sit down for some lunch. We found a restaurant with a man playing acoustic guitar in the corner and sat down for our meal, there was one other small family besides us and we had a view of the street and passing traffic.
With most meals I had in Brazil the meal starts with fresh juice, I think my favorite was the pineapple juice but we had so many it's hard to pick. I had a Brazilian style picadillo and it was delicious. Their style of picadillo ended up being my favorite meal in Brazil, besides fejoada. After lunch we headed back to the car and it was time to check into the pousada. It was about a 20 minute drive from the city center, which sounded like a breeze but we were not prepared for the drive ahead. After arriving to our turn to the pousada off the highway we found it to be a dirt road. We were in a new-ish Toyota Camry and it was definitely not built for off-roading. Keep in mind the terrain all around us is essentially jungle, tree covered hillsides, green as far as the eye can see. It was a bit bumpy but not enough for us to turn around so we made our way forth. As we continued to drive down this dirt road deeper into the jungle I noticed my cell service slowly dropping one bar at a time. I'm not necessarily someone who needs their phone but as we continue into the unknown jungle a little contact with civilization was comforting. Our ride gets bumpier and my cell service is all but gone at this point and all you can see is jungle around you with scattered signs of human life. It's incredible people live out there and have been for so long, it's interesting to me how humans can live such different lives but still be the same species.
As the jungle thickens we pass an area designated for an indigenous tribe in the are, fenced off. I imagined in the past everything I was seeing was there. Houses, a few churches, some schools and random businesses dotted the sides of this dirt road as we drove on. Finally, we see our turn into our pousada. It was overgrown and we were driving basically blind but we knew we had the right spot. We passed a tree line and the place came into view and it was one of the most spectacular sights of my life. Buildings somehow constructed in the middle of the jungle and something out of Swiss Family Robinson.
We pulled up and finally parked to find animals all over the place including a dog, chickens and even a peacock running around. A man smiling ear to ear walks up and greets us helping us with our luggage with a kid not too far behind him. As it turns outs this is a family run business in which they created from the ground up - I'm talking the plumbing in this 12-15 person capacity bed and breakfast. After getting our rooms we unload our stuff and join up in the common area to rest after an extremely long day.
To be continued...
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