Ilha Grande - Tropical Paradise

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Neil:

One overnight bus and a boat ride later we have arrived in Ilha Grande, a tropical island off the south coast of Brazil blessed with white sandy beaches and covered with atlantic rainforest.

The island is quite large, but only about 3000 people inhabit the island plus a few hundred tourists. We´ve decieded to stay for a week and soak up the sun and relax before the final leg of our round the world trip. Our accomodation is a house owned by Willi - a German habitant of the island. Its a nice change from our usual hostel accomodation - we´re able to cook for ourselves and have plenty of time and space to ourselves.

Nicky:

Ilha Grande is a great chance to explore a tropical island with all the comforts for tourists thrown in. That said it certainly doesnt feel crowded here. Our house is set on the hillside in among all the locals but still only 10 minutes walk from the sea front.

Since we arrived we have been on a couple of walks through the rainforests on the islands. The first took about an hour and a half and took us to one of the 80 or so beaches on the island. The views from the top were fantastic, of lots of smaller beaches, boats and little houses hiding in the hills. It was a pretty cloudy day and quite cool down by the water front but up in the forests it was really humid and there was lots of bird/insect noises, all very authentic!
Our second walk was closer to the town and took in the old prison which was on the island until the 1960s. The building is now just a ruin but it must have been so claustraphobic in there with the sea and the sunshine just outside - but then I guess that was probably the idea!! We also saw the viaduct which was built to give water to the prison out of brick and whale oil and a beautiful natural pool made by one of the streams on the island.
xxxx

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