Paraty is a coastal historic town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was first settled by the Portuguese in 1667. Its old churches, cobbled streets and nearby forests, waterfalls, islands and emerald-green sea attract lots of tourists interested in mixing cultural tourism and more natural settings. It is one of the best cities to visit close to Rio De Janeiro and it is definitely one of the best travel destinations in Brazil.
Paraty grew in the 18th century as a strategically important port for exporting the gold mined in Minas Gerais. When shipments in nearby Rio began to attract the attention and ambition of pirates and privateers from rival European powers, the Portuguese began using Paraty as their safe port for getting their gold to Lisbon. Together with Ouro Preto, the town was part of the Royal Road (Caminho Real or Caminho do Ouro, Gold Road), a route used to export gold in colonial times. It was also an obligatory sleep-over stop for travelers between Rio and São Paulo until the late 1800s, when the inner road was opened. This caused Paraty to be forgotten, stalled in time, away from “progress” and disfiguration and helped it preserve its old city as it was in the past. In the 1970s, it was rediscovered as a popular tourist destination.
The historic town is compact and can be covered on foot; cars, save for taxis picking up or dropping passengers, are not allowed into the historic city center. The rough boulders of the old city streets would quickly destroy the shocks of most cars anyway.
Things to do in Paraty:
The historic center – cobbled streets, old buildings, churches etc.
Beaches
Islands – Ilha dos Meros has the best diving conditions
Waterfalls – Pedra Branca and Andorinhas
Puppet theatre – 2 weekly presentations of a famous puppet group
Casa da Cultura – a cultural center
Forte Defensor Perpétuo – Perpetual Defender fortress, a 18th-century stronghold built with British cannons to defend the gold against British privateers
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