We arrived in Paraty and having had a few people tell us how quaint it was we were taken aback by its charm. It looks like a film location, the old town with its white buildings and brightly coloured doors is set on wonderful cobbled streets, flags and ticker tape cross from building to building. Full of churches, little restaurants, houses and wonderful craft shops you can understand why the odd film star is often found in town. The boats in the small harbour are all brightly coloured and you can hire them for the day to go out to the near by islands or just up and down the coast, bizarrely a lot of these small vessels have attached sun chairs to the roofs so you can climb up and sit in them while you are sailing. You got to hope that they are fitted strongly and that the water doesn't get choppy as the boats are only about 15 feet long and their roofs are probably half that. Saying that though apparently the streets in the town nearest the sea do regularly flood in April and May time, and you can see how the paths and roads have larger kerbs with water run off areas. You can but postcards with pictures of people in small boats rowing down the streets, pretty cool.

The next day we visited a lovely beach that was nearby in a town called Trindade, full of locals and lots of restaurants lining the front . It seems to be in the middle of nowhere with just a dirt track feeding it from the main roadside some 4 miles of so away, so it seems you need to be in the know. In the afternoon we went inland to visit some waterfalls and a local distillery. The first waterfall had an 11 metre cliff drop off that you can jump from, it was door dropping and our young local guide who is with us for the day shows the way by heading up into the jungle to find the edge and plunging off. Total nutcase. I decide not to be outdone and head up alone whist the tour group stands below with cameras. Anyway, I soon turned back, I got to the edge and really wasn't entirely convinced where I should land, where was the deepest part I asked myself, that and the fact that I really thought I would be practicing suicide. The boos echoed around the hills. The bigger challenge was actually getting down, I had to slide down various boulders, which seemed easier to climb up. The next waterfall had was like a waterslide, you could sit on your backside and slide at perhaps a 30 degree angle for about 25 metres and then fall of the end, a smaller 2 meter drop off into the pool below . It was great fun, a local was doing it stood up, running and then looking like he was surfing, he was taking tips for his incredible antics via a cap at the side of the falls. Only 4 of us did the slide as it was quite dangerous, largely because the drop off was quite narrow and if you fell off at the wrong point you could be thrown into a boulder and that would have left a mark. These falls in the jungle were beautiful oasis´s on what had turned into a very hot day, so by the time we went into the distillery to try some of the local Cacacha (kind of like rum, but you don't say that to the locals who scoff at the comparison) and see how it is made. Derived from sugar cane they have hundreds of different types and flavours, all quite powerful, anywhere between 40% and 60%. Some are nice and some taste like fire water and make your eyes water, reminds me of a drink I once had up in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus.

The evening we had a wonderful dinner in the house of our GAP Adventure guide's friend who live in the town . Apparently Ze used to run a bar here. It was all local fare and very filling washed down with potent homemade caprinha's that burnt your throat, you needed a glass of water to help it all along. This guy's house was amazing, a local artist who has a lot of his works all around the place and gave us a flavour to how the Paraty locals live, they seem to be doing quite well for themselves. The living room has some religious images and a piano, the place is peppered with new technologies like surround sound stereo system. Seems no matter who you re in Brazil, a good sound system is a must.

I would love to come back to Paraty, seemed just three days was too few to really get a feel for the place.  I loved the live music in the square that went on into the night and the friendliness of the people. If you ever get a chance you should go and be charmed by Paraty.