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Two Chicks & a Climber Reach New Heights
We made our way to Ilha Grande on a 2 hour journey whom Fred, our escort, took us to the island from our hostel in Rio. Seeing Kevin, our new American mate described us one of the 'coolest cats' he's met in S America (!) he decided to come to the island with us.
It took us about a hour to cross by ferry from Brazil mainland, Angra dos Reis to Ilha Grande's resort, Abraao. As soon as we arrived, we headed for our youth hostel at Over Nativa and we spent the rest of the day exploring the island.
Upon arrival, one thing we noticed were the number of of stray dogs, we were cautious enough about getting too close, flashes of rabies in our minds! Luckily I have taken jabs yet wise to steer away. We walked through a path trail which leads into a beautiful forest, despite it was raining cats and dogs. We knew the weather was not going to be glorious till the weekend so we made the most of our walk. There was like a little waterfall and small lake and Andre, being spontaneous, stripped down to his trunks and jumped in the freezing water. Aman and I just stood in our hoodies, while few onlookers seemed amused of Andre's antics.
After a wet day, we decided to stay indoors as the island at night was pitch black, with orange lights. We 'hung out in the hostel, played pool and Andre's set of cards Úno'(which became popular with our fellow friends from Rio's El Misti)
The next day the weather deteriorated, Aman and I took the time to chill indoors, writing postcards and do our laundry. Kevin and Andre spent the day looking for the waterfall which they entered in a 'forbidden'area, climbing over fences. Again we got through another damp night.
We were lucky enough to have the sun out so we split up for the day. Aman and I sailed to Lopes Mendes, a beach paradise situated the other side of the island (Andre spent the day with Kevin, which he will give his account on the day below) The ride to Lopes Mendes was thrilling, with the big waves threatening to topple our fishermen boat over! The beach at Lopes Mendes was absolutely BEEEEAUTIFUL, fine white sands and warm sea and the surfers loved the waves.
After the sad departure of Kevin, we then stayed another night, dining at a pancake restaurant before making our way back to the mainland to continue our route to Iguacu Falls x
(Andre)
Being on the island was fantastic, I guess we are all very lucky to go to Ilha Grande. Thank god, Kevin came since I would have been stuck with the two girls! But most days we did split up as the girls went to the beaches whilst i went up to the jungle with Kevin. We had to climb this tree to get over this 'NO TRESPASSING' sign on a fence. We went through the dense jungle, up this river, there was no footpaths or anything. No other tourist were there nor the locals. I spotted another beautiful waterfall that i climbed up and jumped off. Sorry as there are no images of the fall on this site as I took all these images with my 'profess' SLR camera, consisting a film roll, not digital!
I freaked out when I saw these ugly hairy spiders! I even got nightmares of them eating me up the following night!! There was national tree ropes that hung down from the trees, there must have been hundreds of them, and yes i pretended to be Tarzan as Kevin & I swinged by into a plunge pool.
One of the most exciting day was when us both swam from the island to another smaller one. It was just less than 1km, of course i had this horrible feeling about the ocean since I kept on thinking of the film, Jaws! When we swam ashore, it was so beautiful, and so perfect. I found a crystal and took it back with me.
Off we go exploring plenty! x
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