Ilha Grande

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"No one speaks Portuguese* here" laughed Paula, and I tried to verify. It was true in fact - we had arrived in the 'Goa' of Rio de Janeiro state - Ilha Grande. Full of foreign tourists, there were barely any Brazilians here. Ilha Grande is a large island (180 km square) off the coast of Brazil. Its an ecological reserve, so there are no roads or motor vehicles on the island. What it does have is very diverse flora and fauna, dramatic scenery, exotic beaches, and of course hordes of foreign tourists.

(* for the unitiated, Portuguese is the language spoken in Brazil - Brazilian Portuguese to be precise)

I met some Irish guys at the hostel, shared boats with folks from every continent, and played some really cheesy Hindi songs for a gang of Israeli travellers who barely spoke English. By really cheesy - I mean REALLY cheesy. The moment these guys found out I was from India, they all started singing this one song, which they loved from the look of it, though they knew none of the words. The few words that I could make out were badly mispronounced - but eventually due to the extreme and remarkable depth of my knowledge of pointless B-grade Bollywood music, I figured they were singing a (Salman Khan?) movie song "Chori chori hum gori se pyaar karenge". The boys were screaming out the chorus with every ounce of Cachaca in their bodies, while the girls were very proudly trying to demonstrate to me that they could do some Indian-ish dance step - holding their neck stationary and moving the head from side to side, while their arms were in the air as if they were holding an imaginary basket on their head. It was quite surreal.

All this really made me wonder about music and popular culture, what are the things that actually cross over from one culture to another and make an impact. I remember that in Egypt people love 80s Hindi cinema - they claim that the 'revenge' themes are things they really identify with, although that never made too much sense to me. Kentaro (at MSR), used to wonder about why esoteric , super-niche Metal music is so popular with engineering students in India, and I for the life of me can't understand why this particular pointless song would be such a hit in Israel. I guess these are some of the mysteries in life. More time needed to study this question.

Getting back to the touristy beach town - overpriced food, earring vendors with their tiny stalls lining the cobbledstoned streets, 'Cheap Internet' booths, and drunk Americans - it’s the same all over the world - Bali, Calangute, and at this town: Vila Abraao on Ilha Grande. Some parts of these tourist venues are identical. Plastic chairs with Beer manufacturer logos, T-shirt shops, hair-braiding and tattoo parlors. But even with all this, this town was distinctive and typically Brazil too - the ticket touts were chilled out - they would just ask once or twice and not push or annoy at all, a stark contrast, especially from Bali. The speakers would be pumping everywhere with just Brazilian music (I guess everyone realizes its better than the usual standard hip-hop), and of course, the only sport on the beach was futbol. The setting was dramatic with sweeping expanses of tall mountains and dense foliage, interrupted by steep falls into the seawater, and between all this, this little town nestled in a tiny bay.

Paula and I had left Rio Friday morning, while Fran and left a day earlier. Our aim was to run away from the gloomy rain that Rio had been seeing for the last week, to any bright sunny place.The original plan had been setup by another bunch of folks of whom no-one came - but Paula had planned out a nice route. We left Rio by a two hour long afternoon bus (for 22 Reais) that took us to the beach town of Mangaratiba ("chiba" - the 't' is pronounced 'ch' in these areas of Brazil). In Mangaratiba, we were hosted by Alexander (the 'x' is 'sh') who is an amazing guy who works in a power plant close to Rio, but commutes from this tiny little town. And I can't blame him - any drive is worth the place he stays at - it’s a little funky red, green and blue painted, post-modern design house on the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful bay, a truly incredible and inspiring view. Alexander was a great host - he told me a lot about Brazilian music and the country itself, shared really interesting stories about his life (like when he came on TV years back- he was the first person to get accidentally exposed to heavy radiation from Cesium at his power plant), and also took us for great seafood.

An interesting discussion was about the Tata Nano - the new car by Tata Motors in India which is for 1 lakh rupees (or 2500 dollars). This is really big news in Brazil - Alexander must have been the fourth or fifth person who spoke to me about it - a lot of people are aware of it here and have been talking about it. There seems to be a mixed response - some folks I met in up-market Copacabana seemed negative - "Why are they doing this? There's already so much pollution and congestion, especially in India. This will just create more", while others said that they're waiting for the car to come to Brazil, and whether it would be good enough to buy. It was quite interesting to see the difference in responses - I'm curious to see how this pans out - as its not just here that this debate is going on.

From Mangaratiba, we took a ferry the next morning to Ilha Grande. An hour and forty minutes was the time it took, and since I love boat rides, I was sitting on the deck most of the time and reading my Murakami. We finally arrived, met Fran and after checking into Bugjo hostel for 35 reais a night for a six-person-per-room dormitory, went off to find the beach of Lopes Mendes.

Ilha Grande has dozens of beaches, and these are mostly accessible by land - but since there are no vehicles, that means a trek through the hilly forest (there are beautiful and well marked trails). We decided to be lazy and take a shared taxi-boat, rather than the 2.5 hour trek. The place the boat landed after about a half hour was a tiny strip of sand, and looked nothing like "one of the top 20 beaches in brazil". Fran was trying to comfort us - "its not that bad" while I was thinking for aksing for the boat money back. Eventually we figured there's a further 20 minutes to trek (this keeps the beach preserved as no motorboats to leak oil, although rich folks do take their private boats directly there). There was an uphill and downhill climb through rocks, wet mud and sand. It seemed one needed to earn the trip to the beach. And have some basic intellectual ability too - as a number folks from our boat did not realize about the trek ahead and unpacked to swim at the boring beach where we landed.

But Lopes Mendes itself was marvelous. It easily defeated my previous contender for best beach ever - Kannur in Kerala. Lopes Mendes has a broad and smooth stretch of the finest and cleanest white sand ever. In fact the sand particles are so smooth and round, that there is a funny squeak sound even if you walk on the sand with bare feet. Fran called it 'squeaky-clean' sand. The seabed has no weeds or rock and slopes gently and smoothly, making it great for wading, swimming or surfing (to one side), as per choice. The water is sparkling clean with the surf as the cleanest I've ever seen, as there is no pollution to make it oily or soapy - it sparkles, bubbles and sizzles deliciously. The white sand meant that the water takes on a lovely turquoise color that made it look like some of the lovely turquoise chiffon saris you see sometime. This is not a coral beach, so there are good and fun waves for those who like jumping into waves and body surfing (like me). Fran and I splashed in the water for a long time, while Paula returned to soak in the sun, and we joined in a while. This was the pattern of the day - repeated many times. I also found some rocks on one side, which were a great place to sit and read more Murakami, while listening to the waves crash and wind whistle.

The beach was not empty, but not crowded to much either - especially compared to the 'melas' on Copacabana and Ipanema. The best part was when you looked back at the beach from a bit out into the water. Instead of buildings there were lush green mountains... Instead of beach shacks and umberellas there were thick trees under which people sleep... A band of lush greenery, a band of glittering white sand and a band of sparkling blue water - this beach felt close to nature, but not isolated from humanity.

After a day of splashing, swimming, and sunbathing, we returned to Abraao, and had a great seafood dinner followed by amazing crepes at a dedicated sit-down Creperia (who would have thought). The girls slept early while I was playing the guitar on the hostel balcony.

The next morning, we took the tour to "Lagoa Azul + 3 praias (beaches)" for 30 reais. This was on a much bigger boat, with loads of people. Fran decided that we should try snorkeling that day. Initially I wasn’t that keen as I had my DSLR out and wanted less things to worry about - but am glad I did agree and rented the snorkeling equipment. It was great fun. The first beach was a simple and gentle one, very close to the first ever church on the island (the island is not inhabited by anyone other than the tourist industry folks now, but in colonial times, it used to be a prison, though barely any traces remain). From there we went to Lagoa Azul, where the boats don't dock anywhere. They stay out in the water while you jump out from them directly into the water - was an interesting concept. They give you a 'sphagetti' a large tube of foam that helps in floating, though the first time I went out I didn't know about it. You can snorkel and splash around and make your way to the actual lagoon which is in an enclosed area - here the boats don’t enter (except, again, the smaller fancy speedboats that are privately owned).

The snorkeling was amazing - lots of coral, thousands of fish and again very clean water. It was an odd feeling to be floating in the open ocean with nothing to stop us from drifting away forever, and no warning should a shark appear. But everyone was enjoying and so did we. At one point I was floating on my back taking a break, while Fran who was snorkeling to the side of me suddenly jumped up and frantically gestured me aside. Apparently I was about to run into a Jellyfish.

Another beach stop, more seafood and soaking the sun, and we were back on your way to Rio. Two days of fun in the sun, which was a good change from Rio, which had been rainy throughout the week. The three of us took the ferry back to Mangaratiba, and the bus from there.

Fran Blandy and Paula Coutinho are journalists from different parts of the world. Fran is from South Africa, working with AFP, though she's covered lots of interesting human issues in press, she's annoyed that its her less-serious cricket based articles which get most circulation (she's met the whole Indian and South African cricket team). She was in South America for five weeks on vacation and is heading back now.

Paula is from Rio and works in a communication company here. She's been a great host for dozens of folks to her city - the true warm and helpful Carioca. She's travelled around South America, and now is saving up to spend a year in Europe where she wants to work and travel for some time. She also wants to later on open a nice Italian restaurant somewhere.

The neat thing is that even though the three of us were from different continents - we would often end up singing the same songs - Frank Sinatra, Ace of Base, Mr. Big. Was quite amusing.

And as we left, another happy bunch of foreign tourists from around the world came off the ferries onto the island. And this is great - what better than an idyllic paradise type setting to bring people of different cultures together. Paula was right, that not many here spoke Portuguese, but not many I met spoke English either, or any other 'common language'. Yet through the gestures, talking, singing, swimming, dancing together, some connections between people, some learning about the others' cultures, did seem to be taking place. Perhaps its just being so close to nature in some way, that connects people with some common thread. Perhaps its just the fact that while away from stresses of work, life, and the grind, people become more open to others. Perhaps it's the alcohol. No matter, but the end result is some sort of a connection, some sort of dialogue between people... and be it Bali, or Calangute or Ilha Grande - it along with the core attraction of the beaches, makes these touristy towns very interesting places to hang out.

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Photos

Mangaratiba
Early morning before taking the ferry. Typical landscape here - hills and ocean, with amazing clouds.

View from Alexander's House
Check the rainbows

Lagoa Azul - Boat parking
You just jump straight from the water to the open ocean of the lagoon

Lunch at Mandala restaurant
Fried fish, beans and rice