Paraty Thursday

Thursday morning we started with coffee in the room at 7 am and breakfast at 7:30.  We gathered at 9 to start a bike ride.  It was raining lightly but we pressed on.  We left town to the east (the coast of Brazil at this point is somewhat running east-west.),  crossed the Rio Pereque-Acu and turned left to be headed north inland.  We rode along the river on a lovely bike path

Here is a lovely hotel on the river.

We rode to the intersection of the main Rio to Santos (Sao Paulo) road and turned left to head west toward Sao Paulo.  While it is the main rode between the two largest cities in Brazil, the road is just a two lane road.  It does have a large shoulder so it was safe to ride on the shoulder.  We turned off and found a part dirt, part pavement road to run parallel to the main road and continued over a few ridges and then a valley.  Here is Caroline on that road.:

In the next photo you can see the road conditions.

We connected up again with the main road and continued another 10K to the intersection of a dirt road. This road which runs a few kilometers down to the beach was washed out in the rains they have had the last few days.  We were originally going to bike it, then Dom decided it was two treacherous to do so and we were going to walk it.  With the rain coming down and the road muddy, we turned our bikes over to our support truck and road a land rover down the road.  At roads end there was a beautiful little beach called Mirim Paraty (Little Paraty).    In the cove here an approximately 36 feet sail boat was anchored for us.  Dom and I decided to swim out to the boat and the others took the skiff. We anchored here for snacks and beverages. Here is what one caiparinha will do to an energetic cycist.

 Then we moved to another cove where we anchored and sent the skiff to get our salads while the chef below cooked the main meal. Hanging from the main sail boom were four B&R biking shirts – a traditional trip favor on B&R trips.  We spent three or four hours on the boat just relaxing and enjoying the stunning scenery.

last stop before heading back was an island named Isha do Carembao.  For over twenty years a Brazilian man and his Dutch girlfried lived on the island and operated a special restaurant.  The restaurant was loved for its ambiance.   As part of the awareness of preparing for the Olympics, the decision was made to make as much of the Paraty Islands as possible into national preseves.  One day in the last year, the young man and his wife were visited with police with automatic rifles and told they had an hour to abandon the restaurant operation.  The restaurant is now closed.  Dom thinks there is some problem either with their title or Brazilian law that means they will not be compensated. Dom and I jumped in and swam to the island an explored it.  It was deserted.   Here is a picture from the web when it was still working.

We returned to Paraty arriving by four.  We will clean up, rest up and go to dinner at Pippo, a restaurant with an Italian influence in the old town just a few minutes walk from our hotel.    We had a nice but not spectacular meal at Pippo's