Loading ...Article - History, beauty, and stew on Brazil’s coast
PARATY, Brazil - When North Americans visit this country, they usually come to see Rio’s famous beaches or to conduct business in São Paulo. Few visit this enchanting colonial town, a National Historic Site that lies on the coast between them (205 miles from São Paulo, 154 from Rio). Founded in 1667, Paraty (pronounced par-ah-CHEE) served as an important port for shipping gold to Portugal. Now it is best known for the approximately 300 beaches and 65 islands nearby.
Paraty’s historic center, which is closed to cars, is a treasure of white 18th-century colonial buildings, many with marine blue or deep gold trim and wrought-iron balconies. Because the streets are made of cobblestones, it takes tourists a while to get comfortable looking anywhere but at their feet.
Paraty sits by a bay at the base of the Bocaino Mountains. If you approach it from the town of Ubatuba, down the steep, winding mountain road, the views of the coast are breathtaking.
We visited in April, the southern hemisphere’s mid-autumn, but the weather is balmy most of the year. Paraty was quiet when we were there, but it can get quite crowded in high season, December through February.
As we approached the town center in late afternoon, we were greeted by an exuberant brochure-carrying native. He suggested a place to park and offered to accompany us on our search for lodging. We were leery, but it turns out that this is the way to go if you arrive without a reservation. Our “guide” stayed with us for an hour, and we saw most of the center with him. He showed us about 10 pousadas, or inns, before we settled on the Pousada do Cais on the waterfront, near Paraty’s most-photographed church, Igreja de Santa Rita.
None of the staff at the pousada spoke English, but this was a problem only when the housekeeper tried to tell us that she couldn’t clean our room if we didn’t leave our key at the desk.
On our first morning we took a 20-minute walk across a bridge over the Pereque-Acu River and up the hill to Fort Defensor Perpetuo, built in 1703 to defend the town from pirate raids. Although there is little there besides a couple of the original cannons and some colonial farming tools, the view looking down on the town and the bay is worth the climb.
Paraty’s historic center consists of the harbor, inns, restaurants, and shops that sell crafts or cachaça (a liquor made from fermented sugar cane and used in Brazil’s best-known cocktail, the caipirinha). There are four churches to visit plus the Casa Da Cultura, whose excellent exhibits document the local culture.
Visitors can also hike in the surrounding mountains of the Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina or choose from the large variety of islands and beaches in the area, some within walking distance. There are tours to meet every budget.
We drove to Trindade (on a rather treacherous road; taking the bus next time), a former fishing village about 15 miles to the south with four stunning white sand beaches. We parked at Meio Beach, where there were just a few cars, for five Brazilian reals, not expensive by American standards at the exchange rate of 1.9 to the dollar. Alas, our hubcaps were stolen, adding to the outing’s expense.
Meio Beach is in a cove that looks out to the islands in the bay and is framed by huge boulders. The one nearest to us resembled a giant alligator. You choose a table with an umbrella on the sand and are expected to order a drink or meal from the bar-restaurant behind you that owns the table.
We had one of our best meals here. We ordered “moqueca,” a shrimp stew that derives much of its flavor from coconut milk and its yellowish-orange color from dende oil, a staple of Brazilian cuisine that we know as palm oil. The moqueca was served piping hot in a large cast-iron cauldron accompanied by a magnificent salad containing many things we didn’t recognize and lots of hearts of palm.
When we returned to town that evening, we were too stuffed for dinner so we settled for our second visit to Ice Paraty, one of the three ice cream shops in the center. In the shops, you choose a container and fill it with any combination of about 20 ice cream flavors. Then you head to the toppings counter, where you are offered endless choices. Finally, you take your self-assembled treat to the cashier who weighs it, and charges you by the kilo. It was a delicious end to our only full day in Paraty.
Source: The Boston Globe.
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