Day 74 - 17 Feb.2012 - Paraty

Today was a lazy day in Paraty. We had breakfast in the almost empty pousada - it is still Friday morning and most of the guests arrive today in the afternoon. The breakfast was as we remembered it, first class. After that a stroll into town to get some cash and do some shopping. That done, we escaped the heat of the noon in our pousada with the sea view. For the afternoon we decided to embark on another boat trip like we did 4 years ago. A full day would costs 300 R$ but with our European white skin we would be completely red spending the full day on a little boat jumping in and out of the water – so a half day would do us and we could bargain on the price. We went to the quay in search for a boat and a good price. We closed the deal for three hours and 120 R$ - enough time to get sunburned anyway ;-)
We quickly bought some provisions and drinks to take with us and off we went to meet our skipper and his boat called Keven. The boat’s colour needed a bit getting used to – pink – but once you are actually on the boat you don’t see it from the outside. Our first stop was a little bay where we could swim with sea turtles, if you could see them in the water that is. The rain over the last days left the water quite milky and the visibility was quite poor, so better to find them from outside the water (see the funny image of me searching for them).
The next stop was to go swimming with fish called “Peixe Sargento”. We did that already last time and it is highly entertaining. Then it was time to get back and our skin was as well crying out for some shade.
We arrived back at the quayside and our skin was almost blending in with the colour of the boat Keven. Back to the pousada and hide from the sun till about 7 and then out into the historic centre to take some pictures and go for a pint.
While we were sitting in our room we could observe the helicopters and small planes coming in landing at the nearby airport of Paraty. We have been told these are mainly rich people from Rio and São Paulo coming in for the weekend escaping the buzz of the carnival.
Today we felt like having only something light or basic, just like a soup or so. We found a place serving soup, not an easy task and had some basic soup. As we were sitting there, a carnivals-group, a “Bloco”, was passing by. Compared to the ones in Rio, this one was a miniature version of a bloco, but our fist one this year.