After Olympics in Rio finished, it was time to calm down from all olympic excitement and parties in one of the greatest cities in the world. I had to pack all my stuff and continue according to my plan and as it turned out, it was nice plan. I had one more bag to carry (a lot of olympic stuff), so I used uber (thanks to that app, I lived freely in the city) to go to bus station to take a bus to Paraty.
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| Time to move on from Olympics with one bag more |
Paraty is one small town, approx. 250km out of Rio - 4,5h of bus ride. Town has only around 40.000 citizens and it is perfect for short active vacations on a beach of Atlantic ocean. It was nice to move from huge city to Paraty, where you can walk whole town in less than 30 mins. I met there a lot of people like me - looking for post-olympic relaxation. The bay of Paraty has 365 islands and the rainforest comes to the coast. There is a lot of possibilities for different sports activities. When I arrived to my hostel it was dark already, but I had to decide what I will do next day. I chose kayaking in the bay and I had to say it was something new for me, great experience and perfect upper body training. We paddled for around 12km, stopped at some really nice beaches and also through amazing mangrove forest.
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| Kayaking through mangrove forest |
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| Lonely beach in Paraty bay |
Second day I went to boat trip in the same bay, but to the other side. It took around 6h on boat and some time for swimming at some beautiful places and beaches. There was around 40 people on boat - they said in summer season it is around 200. And a lot of different companies offers similar things. Paraty in summer has twice as many people as in usual time of year.
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| Lonely island in Paraty bay |
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| Another beautiful beach in bay |
Town is also one of the richest in the country with old architecture and typical stones in the street (ankle-breaker if you walk with flipflops).
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| Ankle-breaker streets |
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| Postcard picture of Paraty |
Third day I decide to rent a bike. I decided to go to visit one nice waterfall and one well known beach in the area. I know it would be a lot of hills, but that I did not imagine. First I went to Toboga waterfalls, just 10km out of the city and road went only slightly upwards - it was easy. Then I came to the crossroad and chose wrong direction (2km of crazy hills) and after I returned to that crossroad they told me, it is just few hundred meters in front of me. This waterfall is a big rock, which can be used as tobogan. After that I went to Trindade beach - 27km one way. At first it was nice up and down. After 19 km, it was one turn and then it starts - the hill, I think it would not be allowed even on Tour de France (14% average). More than half of it, I had to walk. When I came on that beach I was destroyed, so cooling down in Atlantic ocean was perfect thing. But knowing that I had to go over that hill again... I almost walked whole way up. Biking down was a big relief for muscles and my head. Summary of the biking - 5h, 80km, 1000+ altitude meters, body destroyed but head happy. I slept like a baby.
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| Toboga waterfall |
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| Trindade beach |
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| Nothing is stopping me! |
Next day I took a bus to Sao Paulo. It took me almost 7h to come to the biggest city in South America (population: 22M). I cannot compare it to Rio - dirty, a lot of people, homeless people on every corner, even with tents on main squares. Luckily I met some realy nice people in Foz, who live in Sao Paulo, so they showed me things around. It was really uncomfortable for me to walk around the city and see those homeless people. There are only three good things I will remember about Sao Paulo. No. 1 is for sure Football museum - Must see thing for all football fans - you know all about Brazilian football, history of the world cups and more. No. 2 is food market there - when you come there, people let you try every fruit they have - from known to unknown ones. No.3 is good hospitality from my friends and also from owner of my AirBNB apartment. Two days in that huge city is enough to see all that it has to show.
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| Night view on Sao Paulo |
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| Fruit market in Sao Paulo |
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| Football museum is on Pacaembu Stadium |
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| Tribute to Pele |
After Sao Paulo it was time for Big Apple - The New York City. If I look back all together - I spent amazing 40 days in Brazil, I met a lot of amazing people, I saw a lot of beautiful places and discovered that there is still so much to see there, that I have to come back in the future. See you soon Brazil!
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| Lonely planet helped me a lot |
From the city, which never sleeps,
