Ilha Grande

Sunday 20th June 2010

Things didn´t go to plan, as seems to be a common theme this trip. We got to Bruno (the guy organising our tour) all ready and prepared to go on a trip of four different beaches and a helicopter crash site, when he informed us we couldn´t. He had booked us on to a private tour the dimwit. So we negotiated a discount and instead hopped on the boat to go and see Lopes Mendez beach- officially voted one of the top ten beaches in the world. It was an hour or so boat ride and then a 20 minute trek through the hills to get there, but it was so worth it. We sunbathed, ate Doritos, watched some Brazilian beach football, befriended a crab, frolicked and Liam tackled some major waves (well, I say ´major´...)

Then we headed back to the mainland and watched a bit of footeh. Brazil won and boy were the locals happy. Everywhere we went there were yells of ´Braaaaaaaaziiiiiiiiiiiil!´We went for an all-you-can-eat bbq (Churascarria) that night and made damn sure that we got our 20 Reais worth of food. I (Jaz) am in LOVE with feijoada- a Brazilian type of bean. I´ve had it in about five of my meals in the last ten days mmmmmmmmm.

Monday 21st June 2010

We woke up and the sky was grey. Having booked our beach tour for that day, we were not best impressed, but a quick check of weather.com assured us that the skies would clear, so we optimistically put our swimming gear on and headed down to the tour. The boat was ace- there were quite a lot of people, we ate pineapple and watermelon and listened to some Bob Marley classics. The guys driving it were proper Brazilian dudes and everybody seemed to have a good time. Due to the weather we only ended up doing two bays and one (small) beach, where we lunched, but it was a nice excursion. Unfortunately, though, it didn´t clear up so at the first bay we stayed in the boat. That bay was called ´Lovers´bay´ and legend has it that if you write yours and your partners´names in the sand, you will stay together forever. Only one guy actually got off the boat, so I guess the rest of us are all splitting up pretty soon haha.

The next bay brought slightly better weather and with the lure of hundreds of fish looking up at us, we had to get the snorkels out and jump on in. It wasn´t too cold at first, but once you had been in a while you really did feel it. Liam saw a load of coral and ventured a bit further than I did, but the fish were ace. We threw watermelon in to the sea and all the fish congregated around it, so we were literally surrounded. At one point an old Brazilian guy rowed up to the boat on his canoe, dig in tow. He was selling coconuts- firstly he hacked them up so we could drink out of them and once all the milk had gone, he hacked them up again so we could eat them. It was ace to watch, it felt so authentic.

The third stop saw us munch down a burger each before heading back to the mainland about five hours after leaving it. It was a nice day out, but we feel that it would have been even better had the sun been shining for us. Ahh well, next time! We got back and I watched the second half of the Spain match from the comfort of my hammock- Vamos España! I´m glad they won but am now really torn for the match on Friday- I want both Spain and Chile to qualify, but that´s looking pretty unlikely at the moment. Gutted. We cooked pasta with sausages and tomato and chatted to some of the other peeps at the hostel (five of which were at our previous hostel in Rio) before heading off to bed early, ready for our early rise the next day.

Ilha Grande is an amazing place, but you have to have the weather for it. The island is so unspoilt- I think we saw two cars the entire time we were there and they were emergency services- and like nothing I have ever experienced before. Everybody is really friendly and welcoming to tourists, we loved it there.
Our hostel- Hostel Holandes- was amazing. The staff were realy friendly, despite not speaking much English, and the breakfasts were ace- mainly because of the cake, that was still warm when they served it. The rooms were of such a better standard than you would expect of a hostel and it was close enough to the centre and pier, but far enough away, too. It was paradise. We would recommend it 150%.

As always, check back for photos- the internet here is so slow I´m not even going to bother trying to upload piccies, will leave that for Sao Paolo!

Ciao!
xxx