When we sailed in here on Mbamba from Uraguay in 1979, I thought I had died and gone to cruising heaven.
Beautiful bays with lovely, palm fringed beaches backed by cliffs and waterfalls cascading into magnificent natural pools. Monkeys and exotic flora, fishermen in sarongs paddling out in dugout canoes to trade their catch for teeshirts or whatever we had.
The friendly locals took us to bathe in the waterfalls and taught us how to cook breadfruit, which is delicious and much more like potato than bread. I could see why Captain Bligh wanted to take it back to Europe to feed the masses.
Parati is one of the oldest European cities in the western hemisphere and has a wonderful charm, no vehicular traffic, and being a few hours drive from Rio, makes it a sort after tourist destination.
Howard [ Just Imagine ] 31-Dec-1979
Isla Grande
Angra dos Reis
Parati
One of the oldest cities in the Western hemisphere dating from 1531.
The streets are closed to vehicles so you get the feeling that you have traveled back in time.
It is a great party town, being only 125 miles from Rio.
We went ashore to a restaurant with a guitar. Some locals asked to borrow the guitar and we were soon spellbound watching our old boat guitar putting out amazing samba rhythms with some very interesting chords.
The restauranteur handed out various instruments to everyone, such as beer cans filled with stones so that we could all be a part of the wonderful sound that filled the room.
Howard [ Just Imagine ] 29-Jan-2008