We started the day (of course) with an excellent breakfast. Our first place to visit was an old sugar cane plantation and cachaca distillery called ´Muricana´. Although the place was pretty run down and not well maintained, it was still quite interesting and provided a glimpse of how it might have looked like a couple hundred years ago. They actually still distill cachaca here, the cellar was full of barrels and there was a smell of Schnaps in the air. We walked around the complex and then hiked a small trail to a beautiful waterfall nearby. To bad I was still fighting my cold, a little swim would have been great (it was actually quite hot). On our way we saw a reptile about 3 feet long and the shape of a lizard with a big beak. At first I was a little shocked, boy I turned around the corner and bamm, there is his thing sitting right there on the trail. Not sure who was scared more. Too bad I was too slow to take a photo. We saw another one on our way back, but I was too slow again. They can move really fast.
We had a Radler at the restaurant and then decided to take our car off road and explore a dirt road we have seen on hour hike. It was quite an adventure ...ha ha ha.... What was the name of this movie. City Slickers? A little rocky and bumpy at times, twice cows and a bull blocked our way. It was fun. Great views, a water fall.
We had lunch at a great little restaurant called Villa Verde. It seemed the chef owner fulfilled his life dream and build this beautiful place, embedded in a lush green garden, right by the river. The food was OK, but the atmosphere more than made up for it. After lunch we decided to continue our little adventure and to keep exploring the valley, climbing up the mountains. Soon the paved road turned into a bumpy dirt road again. It was awesome, great views and on top of the pass we found a Japanese style hotel that caters to the rich Japanese community of Sao Paolo. We soaked in the amazing views and then rumbled and bumbled down the road, back to Paraty. A simply awesome day. For dinner we went to a great little restaurant in the main street called Teresa, which was recommended by our hotel. Very good Argentinian steaks, the live music was even better, so we decided to stay for more rinks and wine. On our way home we stopped at Cafe Paraty again to listen to some blues again and then had a night cap at a bar close to the hotel.
A boy sliding down a waterfall and then ju,ping into a shallow pool at the bottom. Ge got more and more crazy while we were watching, probably showing off. He became to reckless and we decided it to be better to leave before he would crush his head on the rocks.
A chruch that was boulderson one of these bolders. These are single huge pebbles, no idea how they got their and how they wechurchped like that. The chruch is not that spectacular, but I liked the overall theme of the church on the rock.
The old distillery in the cellar of the building. In the background you can see the distilling oven, the rest of the cellar was filled with huge barrels in which they store the cachaca. It smelled good :-)
The waterfall which we reached on our little hike.
The new distillery. On the left is the machine to grind down the sugar cane and to the right you see the distilling oven. They probably only have a small production output.
During our offroad adventure cows were blocking our way. Finally they retreated and we could continue our drive.
No comments:
Post a Comment