Life’s a Beach – Brazil

Even without Rio, the beach is as much a part of the culture in parts of Brazil as it is in Australia – just think of the beach volleyball finals in the Olympics.  We've been told that unless Brazil is playing against Australia in an international match, they still barrack for Australia in sports they’re not represented in - as we share the same green and gold colours.  Their green is for the jungle; their gold for the gold and mineral wealth – unlike Australia’s wattle and gum trees.  But, like many countries in South America, there are tons for eucalyptus trees, originally introduced by the Portuguese 200 years ago for paper production.  Good thing they make good shade trees given they make lousy paper.

Porto Belo

We spent four days in different beach-side resorts, all with differing qualities and historical value, but all sharing lovely clear, warm emerald water and lush green vegetation.  We had a very relaxing time swimming and then lunching at the beach.  These were Porto Belo, Ilhabela, Paraty and Ilha Grande.

Lunch anyone?

Generally they’re safe rather than surf beaches often with VULTURES rather than seagulls on the shore.

A flock of... vultures; Ilha Grande

Our favourite was Paraty aka Parati pronounced Para’chee.  This is the home of the cachaca the sugar cane rum that makes the national drink of Brazil, the Caipirinha.  They reckon after three you start speaking Portuguese.  You don’t, it’s more like straight gibberish.  They are VERY tasty and you can buy the rum in Dan Murphy’s – I've checked – so watch out when we get back.  We have the know-how.

And on food, the national dish is bean stew with pork and beef ribs called Feijoada.  Sorry, you’ll have to taste this for yourselves – it’s great but it takes about three days to make and I’m just never going there.  Apparently families have it for Sunday lunches and usually there’s a Grandma available to make it.

Paraty streets

Paraty was originally established in the late 1600s as a port of the Gold Trail to transport gold, slaves and supplies from the (then) world’s richest gold mine in Minas Gerais to Rio and the architecture was influenced by Freemasonry styles.  It was basically abandoned in around 1700s when the gold ran out and due to its inaccessibility remained forgotten until artists then tourists rediscovered it in the 1970s when a road was built linking it with Santos.  Much of its architecture had remained untouched for 250 years!

Caipirinha bar, Party

So it’s still a bit of an artists' colony, party town, and schooner port.  We snorkelled off the end of a schooner in a secluded bay – not quite the Great Barrier Reef but there were colourful fish and the water was just lovely.

Preparing to snorkel - Paraty

We spent the afternoon in the town – it has incredibly difficult to walk on cobbled streets, some of which flood each full moon to clear away any debris – and that’s when we were there.  Oh, we also did a bit of shopping.

Tidal flood - and vultures - Paraty