Paraty - My favorite town of Colonial Brazil.

Located on the Costa Verde (Green Coast), a lush, green corridor that runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, Paraty (or Parati) [pronounced Par-a-CHEE] is a preserved Portuguese colonial and Brazilian Imperial (1822-1889) town. Paraty has become a popular tourist area in recent years, renowned for the beauty of the town and the coast and mountains in the region.

Paraty was founded formally as a town by Portuguese colonizers in 1667, in a region populated by the Guaianás Indians.

The Guaianás people who lived where the city now stands called the entire area “Paraty”. In the Tupi language “Paraty” means “river of fish”. Even today the Brazilian Mullet (Mugil Brasiliensis) still come back to spawn in the rivers that spill into the Bay of Paraty. When the region was colonized by the Portuguese, they adopted the Guaianás name for their new town.