Checking out the Cachaca

I have mentioned cachaca ( pronounced Ka-shassa) a few times in my blogs so far, so most of you will already know that it is a spirit made from sugar cane.  Those of you who like a few cocktails may also know that when added to lime and sugar it forms that most Brazilian of cocktails, the caipirinha.

It is similar to rum, but differs in that it is made from fermented and distilled fresh sugar cane juice, rather than from the molasses that are left after the sugar cane has been boiled. Paraty is one of the traditional and most important cachaca producing areas of Brazil, so much so that at one stage it was apparently known as Paraty.  These days cachaca goes by various pseudonyms including pinga and aguardente - not to be confused with the aguardiente from Colombia.

As we have sampled a few cachacas and caipirinhas we obviously couldn't be in Paraty without visiting a cachaca distillery.  We got on a bus to Penha, and went to Engenho D'Ouro, which is a small distillery making a number of different cachacas.

After a quick explanation of the process, and a look at the model of the equipment used, we got on to the important business of tasting them.

There were three simple cachacas, one that was the basic distilled version, one that had been aged in Brazilian wood casks, and our preferred one that had been aged in French oak.

Then there were flavored ones.  We weren't so keen on the bluey coloured one that was infused with tangerine leaves, but we liked the one with cloves and the caramelised one.  Needless to say we bought a few.

With our bottles safely packaged up, we were a bit early for the bus back, so we took a quick look around the outside of the church that was perched atop a big lump of rock, and peeked down the start of the gold trail.

Jazz in Paraty

Unwittingly, we managed to visit Paraty when something was happening, which we think explains why the original hostel was so keen to put its prices up.

The Bourbon Jazz Festival is an annual event here, and attracts artists from Brazil and elsewhere.  All of the performances are on outside stages in main squares and are free.

Not being especially familiar with jazz, and knowing that we like one and dislike other styles, but not necessarily which is which, we figured we'd just try a few.

On the Friday we had planned to see a gospel/soul performer, but it was raining hard, so we skipped that and just went out at about midnight to catch the tail end of a quintet called Delfeayo Marsalis.
The main band that we saw that evening was a seven piece called Reverendo Franklin.  They did a lot of Motown classics and a really interesting uptempo soul version of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.
On Saturday we caught Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings, who we both thought that we might actually have heard of, but could be wrong, and an eight piece band called Sao Paulo Ska Jazz.

On the Sunday we watched a couple of guys called Duofel doing a lot of Beatles covers.

I can't say that any of it is likely to rank amongst my favourite music performances, but some of it was pretty good, and for a free and unexpected event, it was quite enjoyable.

Churches, cafes, carts and confectionery

Although the old town of Paraty is small, it has four significant churches.  The largest is the Igreja Matriz Nossa Señora do Remedios which was built over the period 1646 to 1873 to fulfill a promise to Maria Jacome de Melo, a wealthy lady who provided the land to build the town.

Her gift was given with two provisions, firstly that they build this church dedicated to Our Lady, and secondly that no harm was done to any of indigenous people who lived in the area.

The Capela de Nossa Señora das Dores was built in 1800 for Paraty's white colonial elite, while the Ingreja Nossa Señora do Rosario e Sao Benedito dos Homens Pretos was built in 1725 by and for the black slaves of the town.

The Igreja de Santa Rita dos Pardos Libertos was built in 1722 for the freed mulatos, former slaves of mixed black and white ancestry.

But if the town has plenty of churches, it has even more cafes and restaurants.  With many of them obviously aimed at tourists, they are not cheap, and the quality can be dubious, but a few were nicer.

We ate at one on our first evening which was a bit more expensive, but had live music, which is always nice.  One of the waiters appeared to be a wannabe entertainer, as he was continually dancing around the room, trying to get the customers to join in.
There was also a nice cafe with good hot chocolates where we were sat playing cards when a young Israeli guy came up and asked if he and his partner could join us.  We chatted for a while and swapped a few travel stories and tips.

The other thing that we saw plenty of were the carts.  There were two types of carts going around the town.  The first was the horse and carts, both of the practical variety and the tourist sightseeing ones.

The other type of cart was the handdrawn sweet cart.  You could find one of these being wheeled on most of the main streets in the old town.  They all had broadly the same things, including a kind of soft coconut ice which was very tasty.

Cobbles and reflections in Paraty

Paraty is one of those laid back places that just makes you want to chill out and  relax.  The newer part of town is fairly standard, but being low rise and with wide roads it feels easy to walk around.

But the main draw here is the old town, with its pretty colonial style buildings and cobbles.  And what cobbles they are!  These aren't your average cobbles, they are killer cobbles.  Big, chunky and very uneven, they look fabulous; but like many things that look good, they aren't very comfortable.

If you know me, then you'll probably know that I do like my high heeled shoes, but there is no way that I would try wearing them here.  Ladies, many of you, and maybe even a few of the guys, will have experienced how tricky it can be walking on normal cobbles in heels but these are much worse.

It is hard enough walking in boots.  You always have to be looking down at where your feet are going especially when, as it was during the whole of stay, it is wet and the cobbles are slippery.

Ah yes, it was certainly wet.  It rained most days that we were in Paraty, and in the old town than meant that the roads flooded.

Some of them just had big puddles that you had to negotiate around.  Others had one long continuous puddle running down the middle or all one side of the road.  And some were just completely underwater.

This obviously is a frequent occurrence, as some of the roads actually have permanent little wooden plank 'bridges' across them.  We also noticed that the official tourist image for the town is one of their churches, complete with reflection in the flooded road. In fact, although the flooded roads could be a problem when you turn a corner and find there is nowhere that you can go without walking through a few inches of water, they did make for some lovely images of the buildings reflected in the water.

Of course the flooded roads do cause some difficulties for the traffic, and we saw a number of cyclists having to alter course or get wet, and a few cars deciding against braving it, or taking it very slowly.

No such issue for the Skol beer van though.  It came ploughing through one of the deeper parts, sending a small tidal wave in its wake, as if the drinking happiness of the people of Paraty depended in it.  Of course it could have just taken the long way around, but where would be the fun in that?