We arrived in Paraty in the afternoon and made our way to the hostel where we had booked two beds in an eight bed dorm. It suddenly hit home how luxurious an apartment to ourselves had been when I clapped eyes on the bunk beds. We made ourselves some pasta in the shared kitchen and played some cards until bedtime.

The next day we explored Paraty on foot. The historic centre is beautiful with whitewashed walls, colourful doors and authentic cobblestone streets. We walked along the pier admiring the pretty boats and across the bridge to the undercover market. We'd been told about a fort so we made our way there, walking under long arching bamboo. The views from the fort were lovely, stretching across Paraty and the coastline. When we got back to the hostel we booked a couple of extra nights to hopefully see some nice weather as it was predicted to rain for the next couple of days.

The following day we did some essential things, organised our laundry and booked a tour. In a local gallery, we got talking to a lovely artist who told us about the urban sketchers movement; while we admired her husbands watercolour landscapes she drew us, rucksacks and all. It was so nice chatting about all things art and travel.

After a quiet couple of days we decided to rent mountain bikes and see a little more of the surrounding area. We rode out of town with a waterfall as our planned destination, little did we realise that the route was uphill and very steep. We eventually made it to Pedra Blanca and then had a lovely Italian lunch while watching colourful birds. Toboga Falls was next on our itinerary, again another uphill ride. Once there we watched people sliding down the slippery rock into the pool below. Afterwards we rode down, it was downhill the whole way and it was the most fun, definitely worth the challenging ride to begin with.

On our last full day in Paraty we boarded a boat for some sea air, snorkelling and secluded beaches. The small beaches we were taken to were paradise and luckily the beautiful sun made an appearance for the first time in a week.