Well first, first impressions of Ilha Grande are to stay on my feet and not vomit! The boat ride over here was HORRIFIC! I forgot how sea sick i could get and any dreams of owning a boat one day firmly gone after this hurrendous two hour journey! The worst bit was- other than making the HUGE mistake and going underneath the boat into the warm room- made me actually nearly throw up right there!- the tires on the side of the boat! They splashed water into each side of the boat, so you could either sit on the front part or the back part or the middle section without getting wet. There were a few too many people on here for this so some got wet.

Anyway Ilha Grande itself is very nice! Paradise beaches, not so many touristy bits! Perfect. Apart from having to walk a minimum of 25minutes to get to any of these paradise beaches. Sure there was the harbour beach but who wants to swim with the boats! And every walk is up hill! KILLER! At least im beginning to lose the weight i piled on from all the 400gram steaks in BA! Haha!

The hostel that we are in is nice enough to.. Its dominated by British people for the first half of our stay which is nice and everyone gets on with everyone really well.. The second half is forgieners and ohhh boy they smell, are anti social and SNORE!

But anyway theres a beach (the closest one) which is really nice and we go there most days- because lets face it who wants to walk four thousand miles to sunbathe!? Ha!

Theres also this beach called lopes mendes! And boy it is amazing.. BUT its a two and a bit hour walk away! Up HILL! Its a killer. It also took us 3 attempts to get there! The first time it was overcast we all believed the sun would break through and it never did, ANNOYING! Second time it was sunny, we started walking and then a thunder storm started so we went back.. SOAKED! And then the third time, FINALLY, perfect weather! Thank god! I might have attempted it three times but each time i did think i was going to pass out.. Apparentely all fitness built up with the trekking in Peru completely gone.. My ears blocked up, i sweated out my body weight and went dizzy a million times.. Plus i was doing it in flip flops. Hardly walking material! I know i know, 'shouldnt have thrown away your walking shoes then' (done in my mums voice) but really no1 wears walking shoes to the beach, everyone did it in flip flops, it wasnt ideal but its about fitting in! Ha!
The beach itself reminded me of Sennen Cove in Cornwall, but surrounded by jungle instead of houses etc.. And i would say obvs much better weather but the day we decided to it was overcast so even the weather reminded me of Cornwall! Ha! The sand was like flour though and the sea had huge waves! Just wish i had a surf board! (well bodyboard- again lets not lie here about my abilities!)

We also walked to another beach this time the other way to Lopes Mendes but still about two and a half hours away and up hill! (everything round here is up hill) and on the way we made a detour to a waterfall.. Well what a waste of time! It was (unlike Lopes Mendes hot on this particular day) and i was actually dying it was just a slow and painful death! And this waterfall, or should i say trickle down the side of a mountain was no Iguazu Falls! Ok i know it was a bit much to expect anything near but something with a little more power would have done! Haha! So after wasting 25minutes of my life i will never get back we finally set towards the beach. I did die walking this though.. So we are walking along, Tom, me and Selina (this Irish girl) and theres this dead hive thing on the floor, im leading and and a im walking right past it Tom goes 'i dont mean to scare you but...' and the BIGGEST freaking butterfly I have ever seen flies straight at me! I literally was frozen with fear! I hate butterflies and moths anyway at normal size but this was just on another level! Im sure my heart actually stopped working for a short amount of time! I was terrified! To be perfectly honest i dont think the other two were any better but at least they didnt scream and run! Haha!

We did finally make it to the beach though and it was again incredible! The sea was crystal clear and just at the right temp to cool off! It was perfect! And we even managed to catch a taxi boat ride back to the main port to avoid another death walk back!

Also went on one night out whilst we were here, lets just say it was interesting.. There wasnt a DJ just a live band.. In a club! Ha! it felt a bit weird and it also wasnt really a club, more like a warehouse.. Haha! Good night though, few too many Cariprinhas!!

The last few days here though ruined it a bit, it rained.. Not all the time but each day at random times and it was a bit cloudy! But overall Ilha Grande has been incredible!

On to our final stop now, and potentially the best destination of them all! RIO DE JANEIRO.. Just a shame i have to get through another two hour boat journey to get there! Ha!

Speak soon! Muchos love.

XxX