Paraty sits by a bay at the base of the Bocaino Mountains. If you approach it from the town of Ubatuba, down the steep, winding mountain road, the views of the coast are breathtaking.
We visited in April, the southern hemisphere’s mid-autumn, but the weather is balmy most of the year. Paraty was quiet when we were there, but it can get quite crowded in high season, December through February.
As we approached the town center in late afternoon, we were greeted by an exuberant brochure-carrying native. He suggested a place to park and offered to accompany us on our search for lodging. We were leery, but it turns out that this is the way to go if you arrive without a reservation. Our “guide’’ stayed with us for an hour, and we saw most of the center with him. He showed us about 10 pousadas, or inns, before we settled on the Pousada do Cais on the waterfront, near Paraty’s most-photographed church, Igreja de Santa Rita.
None of the staff at the pousada spoke English, but this was a problem only when the housekeeper tried to tell us that she couldn’t clean our room if we didn’t leave our key at the desk.
On our first morning we took a 20-minute walk across a bridge over the Pereque-Acu River and up the hill to Fort Defensor Perpetuo, built in 1703 to defend the town from pirate raids. Although there is little there besides a couple of the original cannons and some colonial farming tools, the view looking down on the town and the bay is worth the climb.
Paraty’s historic center consists of the harbor, inns, restaurants, and shops that sell crafts or cachaça (a liquor made from fermented sugar cane and used in Brazil’s best-known cocktail, the caipirinha). There are four churches to visit plus the Casa Da Cultura, whose excellent exhibits document the local culture.
