Travel Guide

One of the islands around Parati

Parati (or Paraty - the spelling changes!) is a beautiful Portugese colonial style city on Brazil’s South East coast.

Parati is well served by buses from both Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The journey to Parati along the Costa Verde (Emerald Coast) from Rio De Janeiro is especially beautiful - dramatic mountains, verdant tree cover and blue-green ocean compete with one another for the ability to inspire. On witnessing the delights of this area, Amerigo Verspucci famously remarked “Oh God! If there was a paradise on earth, it would not be very far from here!”

A world heritage site, Parati is thought to have been founded at around 1670 to serve as a port for the gold being extracted in nearby Minas Gerais. Parati’s historic centre remains largely as it was in Parati’s early decades and dogs sleep contentedly in the middle of cobblestone streets that are free from cars.

Time in Parati can be whiled away eating gorgeous seafood, ambling through the historic centre, sun-baking on the beach, visiting local waterfalls or island hoping on one of the many boat services. The island hopping options are highly recommended - for just R$20 (about 6 Euro or US$8) a boat will transport you to 4 local white sanded islands, to which you can swim on-shore. Of the local waterfalls, Cachoiera do Toboga is particularly worth checking out - its used as a natural waterslide and is an exhilarating free fun ride, 9km from Parati’s historic centre.

If staying in Parati, the Misti Chill hostel is highly recommended. Another website with useful information about Parati is available by clicking here.

Cachoira Sto Antonio, Brotas

Eco-tourism delights abound in the area around the city of Brotas in Sao Paulo State. The region is well worth the (mostly beautiful) drive of somewhere between 3½ and 6 hours duration (depending on the level of frustration and tedium served up by the traffic at the extensive borders of the Sao Paulo megalopolis) in a direction North-West from the state capital.

Horse-riding, rafting, trekking, river-rock sliding, rappelling, zip-lining, showering in waterfalls and bathing in the area’s distinctive singing sand are all fun activities located within about 30 minutes drive of the city centre.

The Pousada Do Lago is a family-friendly hotel near the centre of Brotas with facilities that include sauna, outdoor pool and tennis-courts. A few metres from the hotel is the excellent restaurant Casinho which serves some fabulous food and has a beautiful setting overlooking a lake that teems with a range of bird and other wild-life.

When staying in Brotas, it will be very helpful to have both a car and some Portugese. Brotas is a gem of a region and the Brazilians have had the good sense to largely keep it to themselves - the attractions and facilities are geared mainly to a domestic audience, so don’t expect the same ease of getting around (using English and public transport) as in other areas of Brazil.

Brazil is a glorious country of rich tastes, smells and sounds, ever-present physicality and outstanding beauty. Brazil revels in a seemingly endless array of delicious food, a uniquely rich natural heritage and vast, diverse landscapes. The country has appalling poverty, urban degradation and city precincts where the fear of crime is almost palpable. Yet this is a wonderful country that is exhilaratingly, viscerally and enviably alive.

The country’s size, beauty and athletic excellence all reminded me of Australia. This sense of unexpected similarity between these two countries was strengthened by the nature of their capitals and people. Canberra and Brasilia are both custom built capitals, constructed as modest compromises between the grander alternative national HQs of Sydney or Melbourne and Rio De Janeiro or Sao Paulo. Meanwhile, the ease and friendliness of Australians and Brazilians speak of nationalities more obviously at home in their own skins than any others I have encountered.

Brazil is a country renowned for soccer and sensuality - both expressions of a country at ease with its own physicality. In many ways Brazil’s sensual nature is best expressed not through flesh but through food - in particular the lush tropical fruits available almost everywhere. But carnality is never far away - and not just on the country’s beautiful beaches. The oddity that is Brazilian TV hires a disproportionate amount of bikini clad young women (with pole-dancing a recurring programming theme during my first two month visit to the country). Both the country’s most successful children’s TV presenter and most renowned female referee have posed in various states of undress for men’s magazines. Meanwhile, love motels in each part of the country promise “paixão sem limites” ("passion without limits") for amorous motorists.

A vivid physicality seems to be everywhere in this country - from the dancing and beaches in Rio De Janeiro to the soccer pantheons of Sao Paulo, from the roaring energy of Iguacu Falls in Parana to the high maintenance beauty of Bonito in Mato Groso Do Sul, from the theme park thrills in Goias to the architectural splendors of Brasilia. And then of course there is the startling wonder of nature that is The Amazon in Amazonas.

I can’t wait to return.

Other postings relating to my travels in Brazil:

Waterfall (Stone Roses) - getting up close and personal with nature’s party piece: Iguacu Falls

Sao Paulo is a city that grows on you. One of the world’s megalopoli, Sao Paulo’s 18m people (11m Paulistas in the city proper, the balance in the greater urban area) provide plenty of scope for the city to serve up almost endless contradictions.

My first impressions of Sao Paulo were not good. The appalling traffic congestion I encountered on my first day contributed to me missing my connecting bus to Rio De Janeiro (and to delaying the arrival of the subsequent bus by over an hour). On returning to Sao Paulo, I was disquieted by sense of threat many Paulista’s feel when completing everyday tasks like entering or exiting houses or waiting in traffic. And a drive along the River Tiete was an un-charming introduction to the poison artery that bisects this city.

The Tiete is now effectively an open sewer that transports waste washed down from the favellas above. This vivid environmental vandalism is a source of much mirth to Cariocas, residents of Rio De Janeiro, whose city casually splendors in natural wonders such as the Sugar Loaf and Ipanema Beach. Paulistas at soccer games have to endure the Carioca taunt “E e e a praia do Paulista e o Rio Tiete” which translates as “A beach to a Paulista is the River Tiete.” The tart Paulista retort is to celebrate Sao Paulo’s status as Brazil’s financial powerhouse and home of Brazil’s super-wealthy “E e e Paulista tem dinheiro e vai na praia que quiser” - “A Paulista has the money to buy whatever beach he wants.”

The wealth of Sao Paulo has unsurprisingly paid for a range of delights that provide invigorating relief from the city’s darker sides. Scratching beneath the surface of congestion, dirt and palpable fear of crime, Sao Paulo has cultural treasures, an amazing soccer heritage, fine buildings, great food and (despite what the folks from Rio might say) some beautiful beaches too.

Crossing the high-planes of Goias at night, I was treated to the most amazing electrical storm. The flashes of lightening periodically illuminated wide expanses of land - teasing hints of the natural riches this that this state is blessed with. Many of the local population have translated those natural advantages into material wealth - Goias is the home of more per-capita millionaires than any other Brazilian state. In the few days I was in the state, I sampled the towns of Goiania and Caldas Novas yet left regretful that I had not more time to see more of of the renowned natural beauty of this part of Brazil.