In the steps of the slave traders

A wooden sailing ship is taking adventurers along the Brazilian coast, writes Mike Heard.

Intrepid travellers get the opportunity next year to explore the coast of Brazil in a wooden sailing ship.

A 40-metre vessel, built in the Amazon jungle, sails between Rio de Janeiro and the Unesco World Heritage town of Paraty, about 200 kilometres to the south.

En route, passengers can go ashore to swim and snorkel, explore villages and towns and hike through rainforests filled with monkeys and armadillos.

Paraty is noted for its well-preserved 17th-century colonial homes.

A former port for the shipment of gold and diamonds to Europe, it was also the centre of an area producing sugar-cane liquor and at one time had 250 distilleries for a population of only 16,000. The end of the slave trade in 1888 saw the population drop to about 600.

Tourism revived Paraty's fortunes in the mid-1970s when a highway linking it with Rio de Janeiro was completed.

The two-masted sailing ship, Tocorime Pamatojari (Adventurous Spirit), sleeps up to 16 passengers and has five crew.

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