Ilha Grande and Paraty

Hi everyone. Sorry for not updating this blog for a while. H and I have spent the last few days on the tropical island of Ilha Grande, which is a two hour bus ride (and then a two hour ferry ride) from Rio. There were two internet places on the island but when I did go online the connection was terrible.

We arrived last Thursday and headed for a pousada that we had pre-booked. But of course there had been a communication breakdown along the way (between the woman who took the call and the bloke she worked with) so we ended up spending the first night in the pousada next door (which was great - it was brand new and we were the first guests). We managed to meet everyone we had planned to meet (Zoe, Colm, Shane, Frainc and Conor)without any problems,and so the drinking began.

We had planned to completely chill out on the island after Carnaval and we did, but pretty much every evening was spent on the sauce.

On our first full day we all went on a baot trip around part of the island, stopping off at the Blue Lagoon and a couple of beaches. The water was very warm and it was great being back in the ocean. The snorkelling was pretty good but the Brazilians have no respect for the coral reefs. When the boats stop in these places most of them just throw the anchors into the sea which is pretty sickening. But the trip was good fun and it was great spending so much time in the sun (although I did go a bit red - it´s now brown - so I spent the next day in the shade).

We spent four full days on the island and on our penultimate day we decided to walk to Lopes Mendes, which is regarding by many as Brazil´s best beach. You can get a boat there but we decided to do the walk through the rainforest. It was supposed to take three hours but it took us longer than that. It was bloody hot but it was well worth it. Lopes Mendes is spectacular. There is no development on the beach at all, not even a restaurant. There are a lot of hawkers selling beer and water which is great, but there are rumours that a resort is going to be built there in the future. This is being protested by the locals but it seems like Brazil´s big three Banks are backing the plans, and even though the area is a protected national park, money talks in this place so it is only a matter of time. We were both really glad that we had been able to got to this beach before it is ruined.

You can surf on Lopes Mendes so I hired a board for an hour. Now I have only had two lessons in the past so I was a bit annoyed when the bloke gave me a 7´2" board. I knew that I needed a much bigger board if I was going to enjoy it. But it had a cool Brazilian flag on it so I looked the part anyway and off I went into the waves. I spent the first half an hour trying to stand upon this thing without any luck. And then I caught one, only for a second or so, which was great for the confidence. I managed to stand up three times in total which I was really chuffed with. And I have learnt a valuable lesson - I am not getting a 7´2" board in Australia (which Chris and Will have already told me before).

Surfing was definitely one of the highlights for me, but another one was listening to a mix that Andy had put together for us. It was his leaving present to the both of us and H and I had been waiting for the perfect moment to listen to it. We did so whilst drinking a beer in our hammock overlooking the rainforest. Thanks Andy - it sounds like you put a lot of effort into it and it brought back some brilliant memories of Bristol for us.

H and I left Ilha Grande yesterday with Zoe, Colm and Shane. We all got a two hour bus to Paraty, which is a small town to the left of Ilha Grande. It is the home of cachaca, the sugar cane spirit that the Brazilians put in their national drink , the caipirinha. We had the best one of the trip so far last night. When we arrived here is was slashing it down and we thought we´d end up spending all afternoon drinking them. But the weather cleared up and we managed to have a mooch around town before watching Barcelona play Chelsea (what a load of crap that was!).
It´s now 11:15 am local time and we are all leaving for Sao Paulo at 1:40pm. It will take six hours by bus,and when we get there we say goodbye to Zoe and Colm who head back to the UK. H, Shane and myself are then going to try and get the next bus out of Sao Paulo to Foz do Iguacu - this journey will take 16 hours! So we have the best part of 24 hours on a bus coming up. Should be fun......

And I am now officially unemployed and homeless.


The village of Abraao on Ilha Grande

And again, this time from a view point en route to Lopes Mendes

Lopes Mendes

Surfboard and Chest wig