it all started in the early 1990s when a group of friends was bathing in the purportedly medicinal mud at nearby jabaquara beach - after noticing that each friend was unrecognizable to the other, they decided to wear this new 'costume' to the carnaval party that night, and a new phenomenon was born.

gaining more followers every year, the mud block has become a staple of carnaval saturday in paraty, always starting at jabaquara beach and ending with a bath in the river, with plenty of mud-covered festivities in between.

the pinga festival, also called the cachaça, culture and flavors festival, reflects the proud distilling heritage of paraty - cachaça, or pinga, is a uniquely brazilian liquor made from sugarcane.