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Published: March 12th 2006
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Us on Lopez Mendez
Self taken, and enjoying the sun! Jacky plucked my eyebrows after months of heavy growth. Thank you my dear! Well today folks, I write you about my lovely time on Ilha Grande yet from the drank and depressing bus station in Rio de Jenairo. I arrived on the island after a hectic travel schedule all the way from Argentina with of course, Jacky. Our bus picked us up quite late and we made our way back into Brazil after a very fast on board lunch. Puerto Iguazu is a border town right beside Foz de Iguacu on the Brazil side.
Our bus ride took us all the way back to Sao Paulo in 16 hours, with lovely films, cocktails and comfortable seats. We woke up in Sao Paulo and immediately jumped aboard another bus that would take us to the coastal town of Angra Dos Reis.
We finally arrived to Angra Dos Reis after 8 hours more of travelling, putting this bus adventure into the category of overwhelming. We found a boat to the island, but it simply would not leave insisting on waiting for more passengers. After an hour waiting, we found a different boat, and finally managed to get to the island well after dark. We did bump into Jord and Ry at which point got
Laying around
Just another day in paradise. our 5 minute crash course on where to stay, eat and drink.
We managed to find a mildewy tent to sleep in, with a reservation for a cabin in place for the next day. The particle board bed covered with dirty sheets combined with myriad holes in the tent itself provided an absolutely horrendous sleep, thankfully all we had to do the next day was move into our cabin and hit the beach.
That night in our new cabin we managed an exciting game of UNO with Jordan, Ryan, Jacky and myself, much beer was to be had an thankfully none of us were seriously electrocuted when Jacky put her wet sarong on a live wire and we all took a turn grabbing it, the game could have become real bad, real quick!
Breakfast at the hostel, Acai on the way to the water (for those who don't know what Acai is, it is a fruit that looks much like a dark red grape, but much more firm and is really healthy for you because it contains a lot of antioxidants and furthermore it is just really delicious and only found in the Brazilian rain forest), then
Our Beach Lagoon
Just another day and another swimming hole to lay around and sunbath. we hiked into a nice place to sunbath and splash in the water, then returned to our cabin for naps and afterwards going out for dinner. This essentially amounted to our daily schedule for three days. The nice thing about Ilha Grande is that there are well marked trails around the rough perimeter of the island, so you can just trot until you find a beach you like -we never went to the same one twice.
We consumed ridiculous amounts of our favourite cheese (Catipury) which is basically a cream cheese, that as far as I know you can only get in Brasil. It has a much different texture than cream cheese at home and the best part is no matter what you put it on or when you eat it, it always tastes melted and delicious. It makes an excellent addition to any pizza, in fact we ate no pizza at all unless it had a minimum four cheeses on it. Lots of coconut water as well, they keep whole green coconuts in huge freezers and then whack off a hole and drop a straw in for you -extremely delicious and refreshing.
After our three days in
Boat to the island
Not our actual boat, but the boat we waited on for an hour before taking a different boat (which I did not get a picture of). the cabin we had to find a new place to stay because some reservation was made and we had to depart. I managed to find a shady local with a hut on his property that was much cheaper, yet once we actually moved in it was more of a rotten shed that had faulty electrical and absolutely reeked like there had been dead bodies stowed in it for some time. He served us beans and mystery meat, and even mixed me a cocktail at 9am and asked us to join him for the big soccer game. Thankfully we passed and went to the beach instead. That evening we decided we had to consume large quantities of alcohol in order to actually fall asleep in our shed, so we ended up out on the town and enjoying an awesome performer at this local bar/restaurant that played guitar and had a mouth whistler that both sounded awesome. We also met some girls from Seattle and an English fellow to join our little party.
On our last full day on the island we attempted to hike across to Lopez Mendez beach, and failed horribly. We took an early wrong turn and when
Angra Dos Reis
Boardwalk in the harbour, we wait for our boat! we arrived where I thought we should have been, we weren't and asking around for directions brought nothing but laughs from the locals. Fortunately we found a water taxi and then a schooner and still barely managed to get to the sacred beach by 1pm. The beach is beautiful, some say it is the most beautiful beach in Brazil, or even the world, I haven't seen all that many beaches in Brazil believe it or not simply because I really only spent time around the ones in Rio, and they are cut from a different cloth altogether with the crowds and sky scrappers looming nearby. However, it may just be the best beach in Brazil, but I still preferred little Corn island, even though Ilha Grande is far far bigger at almost 200 square km and a 130km perimeter plus with 34 little peninsulas, 7 small bays and 106 beautiful beaches of diverse characteristics.
Lopez Mendez was beautiful though, it was much like Chesterman beach outside Tophino except obviously warmer, smoother sand and in the tropics (plus a tad bigger).
The next day we had to leave back to Agra Dos Reis and then to Rio for our
Games
The UNO game that went horribly, horribly right. last night together. We had to sort out some remaining business with the apartment rental people and managed to get them to throw in another night in an apartment which worked out well for our last night in town. We got all our post cards mailed, shopping done, and acai fixes before a nice dinner on the town. Jacky heads home today and I am off to rendezvous with Gavin, Jordan and Ryan wherever that may be.
On a final note, waterfall pictures will be delayed a little longer because I realized the CD was sent home with Jacky and not in my possession, thus she will email me her selections and I will post them ASAP.
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