We only had a quick stop in the beautiful coastal town of Paraty (20hrs to be exact) but what a lovely little stop over it was.
Paraty is a Portuguese colonial town conveniently located between São Paulo and Rio. We were coming from Rio which was only a 4 hour bus journey and the views along the coastline were spectacular.
It was a pleasant change to arrive in a small town after spending the last week in two huge cities and once stepping off the bus we had found the hostel within 10 minutes.
The weather had held out for us so we headed for the historic part of the town for an explore. I was really happy to find that the entire historical section of the town was almost completely untouched; all of the streets were cobbled with beautiful houses along each one. There were even horses and carts taking people on a tour.
The port has the most fantastic brightly coloured boats which you can book for some sunseeking and sightseeing, or just wait for the tide to come in for a taste of ocean life as the streets are designed to fill with sea water at high tide (a kind of crude drainage system before running water).
We spent a few hours at the beach and in the evening we went to a couple of bars overlooking the main square.
We felt we had enough time here but if you were to stay longer there are plenty of adventure sports to keep you occupied and lots of wonderful looking restaurants we wanted to try! You can explore the surrounding jungle on a mountain bike tour or rent a kayak to explore to coastline in your own time.
Definitely worth a visit 
