Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After getting a mini bus along the Brazilian coast which was beautiful we arrived at a small village where we caught a boat to Ilha Grande. The 45 minute boat ride was very choppy and Rachel began to feel ill quite quickly, but the driver insisted there was 'no danger' which was a relief. The owner of the boat was 79 years old, but could have easily been 60, it must be the laid back Brazilian lifestyle! We arrived at Ilha Grande and were dropped straight off at our hostel. The island was stunning, our hostel overlooked the water and the small town Abrado which is just a walk along the beach. On out first night we eat at a restaurant on the beach, it was our first proper meal since arriving in Brazil and was delicious.
On Thursday we booked a boat trip to Lopez Mendes, a beach recommended to us by Seb and Peter. The water taxi picked us up from our hostel and 30 minutes later dropped us at another beach. On the boat we met two American men, George and Demitri, really cool guys who were very interested in to our trips itinerary. We then had to walk 15 minutes through the forest to reach Lopez Mendes. It was a truly magnificent beach with fine white sand which stretched for 2km. The sea was a turquoise blue and people were surfing the waves. We spent the whole day there relaxing before getting the water taxi back. In the evening we had a couple of beers at the hostel and then walked in to town to look around the craft shops. We each bought a handmade bracelet from a local's stall and had some pizza. On the travellers budget we only shared a pizza, but it was a perfect amount. We walked back along the beach to our hostel, but forgot a torch! This was proven to be a mistake, as J walked through dog poo! Luckily he just washed his feet in the sea, but he handled it better than some people would have! There are many stray dogs on the island but don't really pay attention to people. They are better behaved than Gus even, especially when there is food around! When we got back to the hostel we had a couple of drinks on the decking, overlooking the island before going to bed.
Friday we walked in the other direction to the town where there were lots of small coves. After about 30 minutes walking through the forest we found a cove we had seen from the water taxi the previous day. We spent the day at the beach. During our walk back to the hostel we saw monkeys in the trees eating fruit. We planned to cook some pasta with Kevin and Mariana, who were staying in our room. After a little walk around the town we went back to the hostel and the girls cooked while the boys had a couple of beers on the terrace. The spaghetti bolognese which was very tasty and we decided we would have pasta more often because it worked out cheap and beat salami rolls any day! The boys then washed up and we had a couple more drinks on the terrace. Mariana and Kevin were making their way back down to Uruguay, stopping off in Sao Paulo and invited us to stay with Mariana's parents and grandparents in Uruguay. We are hoping that we will make Uruguay in time before Kevin fly's back to Ireland.
Saturday was the day we had booked to go to Paraty. We were considering staying another night in Ilha Grande as it is such a gorgeous island, but the hostel rate was double that in Paraty. We packed our bags and waited for the taxiboat to pick us up. Whilst waiting we spotted dolphins in the bay, several locals jumped on kayaks to get close to them. We loaded our belongings in to the boat and the driver headed towards the dolphins. There were about 5 dolphins in the bay swimming close to the boat, they weren't jumping out of the water, they were quite shy. Unfortunately J had put his camera in the hold to stop it from getting wet but Mariana has said she will email us some photos. The journey back to the mainland was a lot calmer than the journey to the island, although a couple of Irish girls who had been staying in our hostel were ill. Once on shore the mini bus to Paraty was waiting for us.
- comments