Paraty (Brasil)
06 - 08 January 2012
06 - 08 January 2012
A few years ago I recall reading an experiment that was undertaken by the British Council in which researchers travelled to major cities of the world and measured the average time that it took for people to walk a distance of 60ft (approximately 19 mtrs). The data set applied in each city involved 35 randomly chosen men, and 35 randomly chosen women, with the parameters being that the area chosen to assist in the statistical measurement of the 'pace of life' would need to be a busy street in a major city, free from obstacles and also be sufficiently uncrowded so as to allow individuals to be able to hit their maximum walking speed over the distance set. The hypothesis from the data retrieved was that a pedestrians' measured speed could somehow be a reliable indicator of the pace of life in a city. Additionally the data would also somehow show that in fast moving cities people are far less likely to help others and in one more intruiging quirk, fast paced cities also had higher rates of coronary heart disease.
I often wonder how organisations such as the British Council conjure up experiments that often seem to be quite whimsical and capricious. I sometimes imagine good 'ole chaps such as Winston and his buddies from Carrington Hall, sitting back in their Chesterfields, puffing on their Cohiba Behike's, working their way through a Remy Martin Louis, and coming up with fantastic ideas by which they would be 'officially' allowed to indulge themselves in the realm of exotic world travel for the sake of science and the further understanding of the strange beings which we happen to be. I have the odd suspicsion that a conversation amongst Winston and his dear old chums as to the viability of an experiment might go something like this....
'Rodrick, listen to this idea, we'll put to the council that we travel to say 50 cities around the world,we'll sit in cafes having macchiatos for the afternoon and just time how long it takes say, 70 people to walk past us' ...
'Why Winston, what a wonderfully scrumptuous and mischievious idea. I'll get the heads of the Council for Arbitrary Nonsense together at once, tally ho!'
Still, if you want to know the outcome of that experiment, it goes a little something like this
Top 5 for SPEED
1. Singapore (Singapore) 10.55 secs
2. Copenhagen (Denmark) 10.82 secs
3. Madrid (Spain) 10.89 secs
4. Guangzhouu (China) 10.94 secs
5. Dublin (Ireland) 11.03 secs
Bottom 5
5. Damascus (Syria) 14.94 secs
4. Amman (Jordan) 15.95 secs
3. Bern (Switzerland) 17.37 secs
2. Manama (Bahrain) 17.69 secs
1. Blantyre (Malawi) 31.60 secs
Seriously Blantyre, what's going on in your world? When did your entire population 'check out' of life? I recommend that you find something to do, collectively, and spice up your society. I'll write to Winston and Rodrick, I'm sure they have a project that they're just waiting to unleash on you....aside from all of this garble however, what the hell does it have to do with Paraty you're asking yourself? Well to me at least it was quite noticeable that Paraty operated on Island Time, or should I perhaps restate it to, time in accordance to the Blantyre factor. The pace of life on the Costa Verde was S-L-O-W, but the type of slow that embraced you and drew you into its pervasive and all conquering ways. This quaint colonial town located on the Bay of Ilha Grande, had that charming and casual sensibility that somehow infiltrated your own cells and forced you to slow down through the enforced changing of your own internal fabric.
View out onto the Bay of Ilha Grande - Costa Verde - from the Resort Croce del Sud
JJ & Jetson - pace of life at a stand still - Paraty - Brasil
Historic town centre - Paraty - Brasil
Historic town centre - Paraty - Brasil
Paraty - Brasil
Walking around the well worn cobble-stone streets in the historic centre, appreciating the colonial architecture and getting moderately beaten by the humidty and heat, our pace of life was frequently truncated by our need for alcoholic refreshment and inspiration. Not that any of us minded the challenging framework of Brasilian style being that we set ourselves. With increasingly slower movement we managed the purcgase of seafood and wine for an evening fiesta and made our way back to the Southern Cross where we watced the sun fall away over the rainforest covered hills. I think that if someone had taken a measure of my rate of movement in Paraty during those days they would have quickly followed up with a check of my pulse!
07 January
Sunrise from the Croce del Sud
If our previous day didn't quite live up to the all pervasive chilled vibe that we expected from Paraty, well, the next day almost put us into a euphoric coma (is that a contradiction? Probably, but I'm sticking with it). On this day we jumped onto one of the many local boats/yachts that depart on daily adventures of Ilha Grande Bay from Paraty and spent something close to 6hrs gliding across the emerald green waters of the surrounding bays.
Yeah, I'm on a boat! - Paraty - Brasil
'Oh sh*t! Get your towels ready because it's about to go down!'
The colonial town of Paraty - Brasil
Being out on the water of Ilha Grande just made you appreciate the Costa Verde for all that it was worth. I don't recall a place that I have ever been to previously where I've seen rainforest simply cascade from the surrounding hills into the majestically coloured water. Not only was it completely tranquil and peaceful, and not only were we now graciously being served by the weather which had decided to support us in our cause, but the water of the bay was a perfect temperature that allowed you to get your swim on. Additionally, I don't think that I ever recall seeing water equivalent to the brilliant emerald green of the bay of Ilha Grande. It was breathtaking.
Ilha Grande Bay - Brasil
Emerald Green water of Ilha Grande (magnificent) -Brasil
When you're travelling, they're the types of days that are the exception to the rule. Not so much for the fact that other days don't match up, because they do, but more due to the fact that creating a day without expectation and being surprised by what it ends up delivering is always a golden reward. To quote myself, from a line that I wrote in relation to Madrid, 'Sometimes planning things can be the death of enjoyment because what you end up deducting is the very aspect of surprise and chance that you searched for to begin with' - I think our day out on the water absolutely caught me by surprise in what it offered, and also for the fact that I saw Frichot get out into the water also! What the? Unexpected much!!?
Ilha Grande Bay - Brasil
Splish-splash - Rockin' the emerald waves of the Costa Verde!
Ilha Grande Bay - Costa Verde - Brasil
08 January
Each morning at the Resort Croce del Sud we were delivered an amazing breakfast which consisted of fruit juices, various types of breads, and combinations of sweet and savoury offerings from the Lucas's wife, offerings which the three of us could never get through. On our final full day in Paraty I think it was either the enormity of the breakfast, or perhaps the sleep deprivation that finally got the better of Jetson, but he decided to inhabit the inside of the unit for the day whilst JJ and I cruised on into Paraty for a little souveneir hunting.
Now I always find souvenir hunting a chore. Unless something really jumps out at me I hate having to walk around without a real aim and be driven solely by my moral compass. Somehow you feel that it has to be 'shown' that you were thinking of someone whilst you were away and then proof comes in the degree of gift that you manage to conjure up for your peeps hours after your homeward flight has touched down. I think in future I'm going to make my friends and family sign a contract that mutually binds us to strict terms of not having to purchase gifts unless the gift bought is absolutely 'legendary'. That is the only fair way of getting off the program,saving pain, time and unnecessary funds whilst on holidays for items that really won't ever be utilised again. There's only so many 'I love Uruguay' t-shirts that I can buy! REALLY!!
With the mind numbing task of souvenir harassment out of the way JJ and I got ourselves into the 'primo' mode of lunch, chased down by a few bottles of wine. It was just the the trigger that we needed, as our wanderings after this lead us to an exquisite wine bar where the service was impeccable, if not disarmingly odd. JJ and I sat at the bar for hours, with JJ blabbering to one of the staff in English, the staff member responding to her in Portuguese, and me understanding only the common bits of Spanish that I knew but the both of them somehow getting totally in depth about life,love and all things female. At one point the Brasilian lady took it upon herself to give me a stern talking to for calling JJ 'loco'.....'C'mon lady, you've been talking to her for the last 3 hrs! You KNOW that she is, give this man a break!!!'
Several hours later we slipped out of the bar into what was already early evening. I recall looking around and simply thinking, 'Hey man, where has that sun gone!' and then automatically feeling sorry for Jetson because he was going to have to put up with two drunken upstarts when we got back home who when affected by alcohol love to argue! It's just in our DNA, what can you do!?
Sunset from the Croce del Sud - Paraty - Brasil
Somehow the night turned into an oddity in that I manged to rip out what I thought was quite a sensational seafood meal with the goods we had acquired in Paraty, JJ and I held of on any drunken one upsmanship in the argument stakes, and for an additional trick we tried to locate the owner of a mobile phone that we had acquired somewhere along the line. I pity those poor Portuguese speaking bandits that had to try and decipher my guerilla Spanish for the several hours that they continually called the phone in order to resolve its whereabouts. Ah Paraty, you're sensationally chilled, attractive, and have a rebellious dash of good old fashioned pirate in you. I would have loved to have stayed longer but the relaxation coma that you would have put me into may have been something from which I would never have returned!
