Paraty

Last weekend we went to Paraty for a wee birthday treat. Twas most excellent.

It's a small colonial town about 4 hours away by coach. The journey there from Rio is pretty sweet - the bus goes along the costa verde (green coast) and there's lots of little seaside towns and villages (and..ahem...a huge nuclear power plant) dotted along the route.

The town itself looks like any other seaside town, until you get into the town centre. There you have cobbled streets and the 18th c. colonial architecture which is like kinda cool.  We wandered around loads of little shops and galleries and studios, full of the bohemian types who've moved here to be all artistic and shit. Check out the pictures and stuff to see for yourself. It has a recent reputation as a bit of a party town and the caiprinhas are great, but it was relatively sleepy when we were there. Think I'm too old for all that clubbing malarky anyways.

There's loads of hidden tropical beaches and hikes and trails, and we spent two days milling around and generally being lazy and hot and eating ice cream and reading and eating more ice cream. Pretty much a perfect weekend, really.....

Oh, and most importantly, "Paraty was also the set for Isle Esme (the place of Edward and Bella's honeymoon) in the movie The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn".

So it must be nice then.