Ilha Grande

Hello everyone!!

Had the best time on Ilha Grande! Stayed there from Sunday until yesterday morning (Friday)! The weather was horrible on Monday so didnt really do much, just hung around with people in the hostel and watched the Germany v Austria game! Go Germany! :o) Had another mini catastrophe on the way back from writing my last blog on Monday - it wouldnt be normal if i didnt have at least one disaster a day! :o) Was walking back to the hostel along the beach, half way along the beach theres a stream going into the sea and because it had been raining so much the tide was really high! You couldnt see how deep the stream was until u were in it, it usually came up to your ankles but i waded through and it went up to my thighs - was really cross as id put my last clean pair of trousers on - typical! Then when i was wading through both my flipflops came off and floated off to see, i managed to grab one but the other one was a gonner! :o( I stood there for a while waiting for the tide to bring it back to me but my poor little flipflop just floated further and further away! I probably would have just let it go if it were any old pair of flipflops but it was my beautiful new havaianas so i ran to a dry bit of beach, put my bag down, took my jumper off, dove into the sea and swam after my float-away flipflop! :o) Had to swim quite a while to get to it but i got it eventually and then walked back to the hostel dripping wet! :o( whoopsie! never a dull moment! :o)

Monday night we just watched a film in our hostel common room which was nice but freezing as it just leads out on to a terrace and there are no windows or doors so its really cold! On Tuesday we got the boat to one of the other beaches (Lopez Mendez) which was really nice but unfortunately the tide was really high so there wasnt much of the beach left, just a bit in the shade so we went climbing on the rocks and took lots of pictures!

On Wednesday I went hiking over to the other side of the mountain to see the old prison with an English and American guy which was really fun but soooooo tiring!! It took us over 3 hours to get there and it was soooo hot!! Had a near death experience on the way though as I nearly trod on one of the many poisonous snakes on the island!! oops! :o) it was big, long and green! gross!! luckily i saw it just in time tho and jumped a mile screaming in the other direction! phew! We had tour guides for the whole day - 2 dogs that decided to come with us! I saw one following us as we started the trail up the mountain and really hoped it would just turn around and go back (the dogs are really sweet but most are stray so i dont like seeing them coz it just makes me want to cry hehe!) and then next time i turned around i saw a puppy shooting round the corner after us! he was sooooooooo cute!! but he just cried the whole time so we thought maybe he was thirsty so i poured my water into my hands and it had a little drink but a while later it was crying again so we decided it was just hungry maybe and that we would feed it when we got to the town! i kept expecting him to turn around and go back to town as he looked so tired but he made it all the way! :o) The hike was really lovely and the weather was perfect! There were lots of little waterfalls and rock pools along the way that we (and the dogs) went swimming in! I lost my flipflop again though (what a surprise!!) as it came off when i was trying to rescue the puppy which looked like he was starting to sink! We spent ages looking for it and eventually found it under a rock a bit more downstream!! phew! :o) The beaches on the other side of the island were lovely and we had lunch there - well i didnt really as ended up giving most of mine to the dogs! :o) We headed back to our side of the island about 4ish and had to practically run as it starts getting dark about 5am! Luckily we found a short cut so saved a lot of time, it was such hard work tho and the boys play semi professional football - nearly died trying to keep up with them! :o) On the way back we realised why the puppy was crying and moaning the whole time - its paws werent properly developed and were still really soft so it probably hurt walking for so long on the sharp stones so i ended up carrying it most of the way down the mountain! And the crying miraculously stopped!! :o) We named the puppy cry baby, baby for short and the other one roundabout as it had a really curly/bent tail! :o) Anyway.... sorry got a bit carried away with the dog story!! :o)

On Thursday I coudnt find anyone to hang around with so i made myself go and talk to some guys sat outside and then spent the day on the beach with one of them (the other one went home) - hes English and was coming to Rio yesterday too so I came with him which was nice as Rio can be a bit dangerous! And watched the Germany v Portugal match which was cool! That evening there was another big BBQ for both the hostels which was sooooo much fun and met loads of nice people! Got chatting to 2 English girls and one of them has a parasite growing in her foot!! Apparantly you can pick them up on the beach, theyre tiny and go in through the pores on your feet and then start growing! You could see its tenticles! It was gross! Shes hoping its going to die soon! Obviously! :o) I think id be a complete mess if i had a parasite in my foot, id probably cry all the time or chop my foot off, but shes taking it really well and was making jokes about eating for 2 etc! hehe! :o)

Yesterday the English guy and I got the ferry and then the bus to Rio! Rios absolutely amazing.... i love it although its quite sad seeing all the children walking around all night selling things and sniffing glue! :o( The English guy has 6 friends here who are on holiday so have been spending most of my time with them which is cool! Although i need to find some other friends here as ive realised these boys are quite into their drugs which im obviously not so impressed about! so think ill just do my own thing tomorrow - go sightseeing either just by myself or hopefully ill have recruited some more friends by then! :o)

Anyway, Ill put some of the photos up from Ilha Grande and will write more about Rio at the end of the week when ive seen more of the city! :o)

Lots and lots of love and hugs!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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