Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - Paraty

We had a leisurely start this morning, meeting at 9:30 after breakfast to take a couple of horse drawn carts to Burza, a manufacturer and seller of fine knives.  We had asked Robert Ballentyne the night before for his comments on the house of Burza.  He pointed out the owner was a Cossack – and proud of it – who has built a little Cossack village.  Robert obviously has his questions about the fellow so we approached it with heightened curiosity.  The entrance to the property was a grand gate barred by a traffic-crossing bar.  We were instructed in a Portuguese sign to call a number.  Dom did the honors and the bar rose.  Signs announced we were on closed circuit video.

We were directed to a large building built in a central Asian style looking somewhat like an Orthodox Church.  The carved wooden door depicted scenes from New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life.  Across the front of the building were four large stained glass windows.  Upon entering the building we were led to a large vaulted room with a heavy carved wooden table with ten carved chairs.  Along the sides of the room were display counters with knives of various types.  They were marked with signs in Portuguese describing their intended use.  Some were table settings, some were specialized for filleting fish for example and some were for professional cookes. 

On the vaulted ceiling were six large paintings done, we were told, by Polish painter.  They depicted various events from the history of the Cossacks as told to the Polish painter by the owner.  It began by a painting showing a man having his leg severed in battle.  This was explained to us as the beginning of the knife business.  Unable to fight the ancestor of the owner became a forger of weapons.  Other paintings show Cossacks fighting with the Ottomans on behalf of the Austrians, fighting the Russians, fighting with the Russians against the Germans.  Most were fighting scenes.  In addition to the commercial goods on display, crossbows, pikes and other weapons were displayed.  The entire place gave me an uncomfortable feeling.  Ben and Gail purchase a place setting of knives and a couple of other types of knives to be shipped home. 

We retuned to the hotel, packed up and headed to the civil aviation airport to catch our King Air for a flight to Paraty.  The runway at the airport was built by NASA as and emergency landing strip for the space shuttle and seems endless.  Now it is a little bit of a white elephant.  We were told a mining company maintains it.  There is no real FBO operation apparent and it looks like there may be one or to commercial flights within Brazil.  The only planes on the tarmac were shuttered and tied down single engine planes, two Cirrus and to piper cubs.  

Now we are in route to Paraty, a costal town that once was the port through which the gold and precious stones from Minas Gerais were shipped.  When it became bypassed by Rio, it sunk into a sleep village.  This no doubt is why so much of its colonial past is preserved.  It is a National Monument and a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage designation.  Our lodgings will be Casa Torguesa, a six room property.  More to come.