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Brazil
Trip #2
- Parati Area - April 2006 |
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This web page tells the story of the portion of our Brazil Trip that took us from Rio de Janeiro down to the area near Parati. The trip there took us west along the coast for about 130 miles (200km). It took about 6 hours due to windy roads and picture stops. The only negative aspect was that the weather was gloomy. |
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<== We headed west, into unknown territory ... for us, at least.
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The ocean was quite rough at this point and there were many surfers along the rocky points. The water temperature was pretty warm but most wore wet suits for general protection. |
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The road followed the coastline and we soon came upon a long beach with new buildings. The developers seemed to be very busy in this area; many of the units were still for sale. It will be interesting to see what this area looks like in 10 years. |
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| The sidewalk and huts in this area were brand new. They also used black & white rocks to make neat sidewalk patterns. | These beaches must get crowded during vacation months. | |
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| These beaches reminded me of Southern California... without the high price tag! | ||
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<==== The road long the coast was rocky at times and we went through a few tunnels. ====> |
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| We were impressed with how nicely these far-away beach areas were kept up, especially since there were NO people around. Unfortunately that also meant the drink huts were closed... nuts! | ||
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| At this point, the coastal road ended & we had to take an inland route. Later we learned that this last beach is used as a landing strip for hang gliders that take off from the nearby mountain. | ||
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| The inland route was lush & had many granite domes which dotted the coastline. Here and there we came upon small towns. | ||
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We
got lost for a little while, which was not much fun ... as we ended up back in
the poor area of Rio. The maps were not real helpful on this part of the
trip.
Luckily, we found the road back to the coast and we could look back at the beach areas. |
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| We passed quiet little bays and then passed areas with a big surf; the route was beautiful! | ||
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| As we neared our destination, you could see many small islands out in the calm ocean. | ||
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| We arrived in Parati in good shape. The town looked pretty normal until we got further 'downtown'. | ||
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We had to
park the car and could only walk in the city center. The streets were made of
stone & the buildings were very old; built by European settlers.
Donkey carts were the only kind of rental vehicles we saw! |
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| Our
hotel looked like any another building from the outside. On the
inside, it was big & open ... it actually took up the interior of the entire block. In Spanish it would be called a 'hacienda'. |
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| A river went through the town & it became obvious that boats were a main mode of transportation. | ||
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| The views along the river and coast were very nice; complemented by the nice weather. | ||
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There was no shortage of fine places to eat and drink. They told us that
during
high season, this place is full of tourists & is even more co$tly than
now... yikes!
We enjoyed walking around the town & got to see the sun setting behind the beautiful bay. |
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| The next morning we took an early walk along the beach; not good for swimming due to pollution. | ||
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| The weather turned cloudy again, but we kept to our plan of going to a secluded beach, an hour away. The markings were poor and we basically had to follow the coast & use our instincts. | ||
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The
road seemed to come to an end at a small beach near a village... we were
looking for a longer beach & found a little road that took us to it.
The map to the right shows the beach. At the top right is the village & small road. We parked at the beginning of the red line & walked to the end of the beach. |
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| The first sight of the beach. | Too many people at this part... so let's head over that way! | |
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| We had to climb a hill and could look back at the parking area. | The water had a nice blue hue to was pretty calm. | |
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| We had the beach basically to ourselves. Nicole made a little camp and had a friendly visitor... but don't tell our cat! The swimming was pretty nice, but we had to be careful due to the currents. | ||
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| Jay saw an erosion problem & built a dam to re-route the river. | Nicole finished the bypass. | |
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| The tired construction workers then headed back to Parati for a restful evening. They slept well knowing that they completed an engineering feat that will possibly save the rain forest.... ha! | ||
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| The
next morning we left early, as we had a big travel day ahead of us. The
sun was shining nicely as we departed Parati.
This area, as well as beach areas further south towards Sao Palo, would be fun places to return to in future years. |
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| We headed back to Rio on the same road that we came on, but it seemed prettier than before. | ||
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| The little harbors were filled with boats... people in these parts seem to have plenty of money! | ||
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| The inlets, coves and islands also had many vacation homes built on them... very nice! | ||
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| On the inland roads we also came across large ranches that were now used as hotels. | ||
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| As we got near Rio, the coastline got more crowded. This city looked real nice at first, but then we saw an oil rig in the bay & lots of poor housing surrounding the area... back to the reality of Rio! | ||
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This concludes our visit to
Parati & areas south/west of Rio de Janeiro... now we head north/east... To continue to the next page, click on : Brazil #3 - Trip to Buzios To return to the main page, click on : Brazil Trip Page |
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