A town that dates back to the 16th century, beaches, and rain forests of Serra da Bocaina national park, all that is Paraty... Its mystery starts with the spelling of its name and both -i and -y can be found. The name was given to it by Gualanas Indians that inhabited the area and means the river of fish. Its main attraction is a colonial part that has not changed much in 250 years. The surrounding Costa Verde, green coast, does credit to its name. Lush rainforests cover mountains that rise right behind the city and reach more than 4000ft high. Beaches in the nearby town of Trinidad are well known and there are many secluded beaches reachable by boat.

From Sao Sebastiao, we continued on the scenic Sao Paulo State road 101 along the coastline toward Caraguatatuba. Antonini recommended droving up SP-099 , Rodovia dos Tamoios, from there up the slopes of Serra do Mar. It is a winding road that quickly rises to 800m through Atlantic rainforests. Moisture coming from the Atlantic gets lifted by the mountains and clouds are formed shrouding the steep mountain slopes. The surrounding vegetation reflects this constant streem of moisture. It brought back memories of cloud forests in Costa Rica.

After coming back down from the clouds, we continued along the coast through Ubatuba toward Parati. It is a bit over 200km from Sao Sebastiao to Parati, but the winding road and, most importantly, countless speed bumps, just like the previous day, made it seem like a longer drive. Subjectively, the most interesting part of it came toward the end just before leaving the state of Sao Paolo. The highway leaves much of the civilization behind and passes through long uninterrupted sections of the Atlantic forest before descending toward Parati in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Truck	Bananas	Into the clouds	Cloud highway	Rolling clouds	Highway SP-099
Left turn	Left turn and a truck	Traffic in the forest	Fern	Fern	Fern
Speed bumporama

After settling in at Pousada Corsario in Parati, we set out to explore colonial streets of the town. Lights soon came on in colorful shops and numerous restaurants and bars looked quite inviting. After having a dinner at one and stopping for an absinth drink at another, we were drawn in by live music into another bar. The music by Andre&Marilde was realy good and I am not sure how many of the the kiwi cocktails we ended up having...

A lady and her dog		Paraty street	Boats for sale	Lights and a church	Cachaca store
Colorful entrances	Cachaca multitude	Tasting	Sweets stand	Cachaca Maria Izabel	Bohemia beer
Historic guns	Enchantress	Kiwi cocktail	Andre

Given our limited time in Parati and unfamiliarity with the surrounding attractions, we opted for a tour on the next day. For 60 Reals, we were ferried by a jeep to a few highlights of the area. A short hike through the rain forest took us to Pedra Branca's waterfall. The next stop at the Tarza waterfall featured a Tarzan-style swing over a pool of water.

				Flowers	Pedra Branca's waterfall
Mushrooms		Aluminum can tree	Pooch	Paraty Tours jeep	Fern
Tarza falls	Swinging		Tarzan Irina	Tarzan Irina	Or is it Jane?
Blooming plant	Bromeliad	Fern	Fern in BW	Jeep

A ride further up the hill took us to Pedra Branca Cachaca distillery. They showed us the whole process of cachaca making - from growing the sugar cane, cutting it, to fermentation and distillation. Free samples were offered to keep us warm and entice us into buying some more.

A stop at the restaurant Villa Verde featuring Italian cuisine was an oportunity to have lunch and do some birding in the surrouding garden. One can slide down the smooth rocks of the Toboga waterfall for a bit of an adrenaline rush. It was cloudy and relatively chilly, and with no spare clothes to change into, we passed. Another cachaca distillery, Engenho D'our, and the nearby beginning of the Gold Trail was the second to last stop of the tour. An orchid exhibit finished off the colorful tour.

Tanks	Distillation tanks	Sugar cane	Cachaca tasting	Bartendress
This one?	Pedra Branca Cachaca personnnel	Banana		Hummingbird	Hummingbird
	Interlacing
	Engenho D'our cachaca	Tasting			Phalaenopsis
Paraty scene	Street musician	Street musician	Street musician

It was a beautiful morning. The sun came out and lit up the colorful boats and streets of Parati...

Palm tree	Parati street	Counting change	Corner store	Bikes	Pigeon bath
Hiding	Igreja Matriz da Nossa Senhora dos Remédios	Colors of Parati	Fishermen	Catch	Catch
Heron and Igreja Matrix	Capela de Santa Rita	Capela de Santa Rita	Vulture tracks	Boat and Capela de Santa Rita	Small boat
Rio Pereque Acu	Motorcyclist	Pink bike	Dog life

It was hard to leave Paraty after enjoying the beautiful morning. We reluctantly set out on our drive back to Rio. It is some 250 scenic kilometers on Highway 101. The highway travels between the Atlantic dotted with islands and rainforest covered mountains. The rainforests seemed particularly lush just north of Paraty and there is little in the way of civilization. After a while, we made a stop in a sleepy beach town of Tarituba. Still north from there, the coast is more densely populated, one of the most scenic spots is curiously marred by the sole Brazilian nuclear power plant, Angra Nuclear Power Plant. The civilization gets denser toward Angra dos Reis, but the never-ending scenery continues until the highway leaves the coast west of Rio. With the nice weather, the call of the Corcovado Mountain got particularly strong and that is where we headed next.

A rare red car on Hwy 101	Tarituba boat	Tarituba locals	School decoration	Angra Nuclear Power Plant	Road scenery