We woke to another drizzly morning in Santa Teresa. Luckily, the weather started to break just as we were having our breakfast on the beautiful top floor terrace of Casa Cool Beans. We decided to take a quick stroll through the neighborhood and see some more of Santa Teresa before we had to catch our bus to Paraty. Aside from the quaint cobblestone streets and historic architecture (most of Rio is now high-rise apartments and condos, whereas Santa Teresa remains a mix of mostly row houses), lots of graffiti artists have decorated the walls with interesting artwork. After an all too short visit to Santa Teresa, we bid tchau to Lance and Mousse (never did meet David) at Casa Cool Beans and took a taxi to the central bus station in Rio.
Called the Rodoviaria Novo Rio, the station is located in a not so scenic or desirable area near Centro. That’s ok, because all we were there to do was catch our bus down the Costa Verde (Green Coast) to the historic town of Paraty. After a winding and bumpy four-hour ride down the 101, we pulled into Paraty. The A/C was blasting on the bus, and I managed to catch a cold in this tropical paradise…ugh. The historic center of Paraty is a well-preserved glimpse into old colonial times when gold extracted from the interior region of Minas Gerais was hauled down the Golden Road and shipped back to Portugal to fund its “explorations and discoveries”. After a faster route was developed to Rio, Paraty was all but forgotten and remained preserved as it was for a long time.
We caught a taxi from the bus station to our next accommodation called Vivenda, run by an effervescent and interesting Brit named John. Vivenda is absolutely beautiful and lived up to its top-billing on TripAdvisor. I had booked one of the two bungalows on the property (the other accommodation was a double room attached to John’s house), so the B&B is very intimate. The bungalow has a veranda with chairs and hammock and looks out onto the pool and patio. Perfection.
Our first night in town was unplanned, so we wandered down along the canal into the historic center of town. We stopped by to pay our deposit at the Academia de Cozinha e Outros Prazeres (Academy of Cooking and Other Pleasures) for our Brazilian cooking class in a couple nights (more on that later), and to get some dinner and perhaps find some live music. We went to an Italian restaurant Punto di Vino, highly recommended by a friend who had spent some time in Paraty before. The food was absolutely delicious: bruschetta with tomato, olive oil, garlic and basil; housemade ravioli with pistachios, parmesan, nutmeg, and bacon; pizza with various mushrooms and ham; and a half-carafe of Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. Wow! There was a gentleman setting up and playing guitar, singing some MPB but I wanted to try and find this other bossa nova singer who had come highly recommended to us. So we left and ducked into a few other possible places for live music, but to no avail.
After a long day on the bus, we tromped back to the pousada to get some good rest before the next day’s trek…literally.
Tchau, Tom
It’s not to cool to get a cold on the first day you get to a place like Paraty, but hope you had a nice time!
Thanks geko, we absolutely loved Paraty! Our favorite spot from the whole trip. Hope to make it back there again soon!