15/5/09 We got the 9 o'clock boat from Ilha Grande to the port of Angra dos Reis, where we caught a local bus to Paraty. We had fantastic views on the way, because we spent a lot of time hugging the coast and as a result we passed lots of lovely beaches - some small, isolated, others busier and longer. With the sea on our left and forested mountains on our right, it was beautiful. We arrived mid afternoon, and the rest of the afternoon and the evening was spent having a very late lunch at a Kilo place, spending time on the internet, and having some caipirinhas with the others at a bar in the Old Town.

16/5/09 Today was our own to explore, so first of all Dave and I walked to the fort on a headland. Unfortunately the exhibitions inside were closed, but we walked round the surrounding area. I walked down a steep hill of rock and tall waving grasses to where it met the sea; at the bottom I could see lots of small oyster shells just below the water line. I had seen a notice at the top warning of oyster beds and equipment, so I was looking out for them. After that we just wandered round the Old Town in the afternoon. It's really atmospheric; the streets are made of extremely large rounded cobblestones, no cars are allowed on them, all the houses/shops/restaurants are colonial buildings (most of them single storey, which was strange for me as I was so used to the skyscrapers everywhere in Rio!) There were some markets stalls set up, but we didn't get anything. We wandered round the harbour, and spotted more oysters in the water as well as a crab and some long, thin silver fish.
In the evening we walked around again - we had dinner separately from the most of the rest of the group because we fancied a couple of meat skewers from a roadside stall and a burger rather than a proper restaurant meal. There were some performers on the streets; a fire juggler, a human statue and a guy making paintings on sheets of glass using spraycans, as well as a tarot reader and a couple of buskers. The work the spraycan painter produced was surprisingly good, actually, of sunsets and views etc. We had a caipirinha each from the same bar we had been to the night before, and a couple of times we checked the restaurant the others had said they'd be in, but didn't see them. It turned out the next day that they'd been there the whole time; we just hadn't seen them because they were tucked away in a separate room.