We have been in Paraty a few days now and life sure has slowed right down! Yesterday we didn’t even leave our gorgeous home! Very lazy indeed!!!

We’ve been very content relaxing in the hammock watching the beautiful array of birds coming to the birdfeeder, eating the bananas and other fruit we leave out. We’ve caught up on some more schooling, and been listening to ‘journey to river sea’ on audiobook, which is perfectly filling our heads full of wonderful trips down the Amazon river!

This afternoon we decided however it was time to get out and visit one of the many beautiful waterfalls that Paraty is famous for.

So apparently all you need for some beautiful waterfalls is some uneven ground, a large amount of water and a lot of forest, all things plentiful just inland! So we jumped in our tiny hire car and took the very (very majorly underlined here!!!!) uneven dirt track up into the dense jungle forest!

Now I’ll admit half way in I was thinking…hmm…not to sure about this! The Weather suddenly looked set to storm at any moment and I was worried we’d be stuck in a wet slippery jungle! 😳

But thankfully Mother Nature was on our side, the weather held out and we reached the cachoeira da pedra branca (white stone waterfall) safely.

We paid 10real (about £2.30) on entry which goes to general upkeep of the area, and set off by foot deeper into the jungle! As we walked along the little path we were watched by the eyes of many little monkeys 🐒 and the sounds of the jungle were very loud, and the trees seemed to be getting bigger and bigger along with the bugs on the floor!!! Lordy why did I wear flip flops!

Thankfully it wasn’t long before we started to hear the crashing sounds of the waterfall in the distance , and after a bit of climbing over some large rocks and up an old stone stairway, there it was!

So Magnificent, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves! Seriously lucked out! I thought to myself this is what paradise looks like!

There were a couple of larger waterfalls and plenty of smaller ones cascading over beaten down rocks. In some areas, years of water pounding had sculpted the rocks to create stunning natural artworks. Inbetween them all lay a large rock pool, full of cool mountain water, well it wasn’t long before we were all stripped off, swimming around and sliding off the rocks with huge grins on our faces! What a find!

We only stayed for about an hour, but I already know it was one of those moment that will stand out for us on this wonderful trip!

After all it’s not everyday you get to swim in a jungle waterfall!