We know we already claimed we found Paradise two blogs ago, and we hate to sound like brats, but we are pretty sure this time, we found Paradise. For real. The final leg of our Brazil trip was spent on the famed Costa Verde, the coastline between Rio de Janeiro and the Sao Paulo state. The Costa Verde can be described as hundreds of miles of tropical coastline and islands with one perfect beach after another. After a 2 hour drive south from Rio down the Costa Verde and a 1.5 hour boat ride, we arrived at the lush and laid [View Full Entry]

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During my time in Rio de Janeiro - I took two trips to the big island - Ilha Grande - it sounds so natural in Portuguese but translated "Big Island" - clumsy. It is virtually road and car free, a natural relaxed paradise just a few hours from the hustle of big city Rio. For most of it's history as part of the country of Brazil Ilha Grande was a high security prison - off limits to the public, the military personal posted there must have loved the experience, the prisoners, loathed it - tiny dark damp cells with the promise [View Full Entry]

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Kazza says From the moment we read about it in the travel books we knew we wanted to visit the island retreat of Ilha Grande. The island's history fascinated us: first it was a hideout for pirates, then a lepor colony and finally a prison for some of Brazil's most violent criminals. All that remains of these now are some ruins amidst tropical beaches and virgin Atlantic rainforest. First we travelled on a scenic bus journey 4 hours down the coast from Rio, it is not called the Costa Verde for nothing, the shades of green are neverending, I guess because [View Full Entry]

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With so many awesome memories of Rio, sat on the bus winging our way away from there, it was hard not to feel a little down. The carnaval was for me one of the real highlights I was looking forward to during my time out here and it certainly didn´t disappoint. Of course im not one to dwell on the past...well except for that time I had my pants pulled down in the school library in front of everybody, unfortunately that haunting memory will stay with me forever. At least im not bitter! So with renewed vigour we made our way [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone Well where do I start, we left Rio about a week ago and got the bus down to Angra dos Reis where we then got a ferry across to Ilhe Grande. There are no banks and no cars on the island which makes for a big change from Rio. We eventually found our hostel (Over Nativa) there was NO signs at all and tempers were getting frayed but alas with some help from a man who spoke no english we found it!! Really nice hostel just one street back from the main beach. We were staying in a 10 [View Full Entry]

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...The best beach in Brazil, Madness at the Maracana, Rocinha Favela, and wooing: favela style... Hello there, things good? It´s time for another installment of my now world famous blog, and what an installment it promises to be. It´s been an action packed week so lets get straight down to it. The big Island, or Ilha Grande to the natives, is where we kick off after last weeks three day stint in Rio de Janeiro. The main characters of this little adventure were feeling a tad fatigued from all the effort of sunbathing on Ipanema beach and sightseeing you understand, so [View Full Entry]

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After our first stint in Rio (which I am holding back from blogging on until after we leave for a second time) we took the popular trip down to Ilha Grande, or The Big Island, approximately two hours south of Rio off the coast. After a short bus journey we boarded the first boat we saw which had a man enticing us on with shouts of ´beer, cerveja, mucho beer, mucho cerveja´, and we helped out with the loads of cargo being lumbered on board over our shoulders. Not quite the chicken on the lap scene which Emma had in Africa [View Full Entry]

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Today was a fabulous day because we got to go Kayaking in the Atlantic!!!! Rach and I saw a live starfish for the first time, it was bright orange and bigger than my face. Crazy. I also had one of the sweetest/most stupid kayaking experience of my life. Rachel and I were kayaking in some coves, protected from the waves and winds, so, we didn~t wear our life jacket. bad choice:) Well, we ventured out into some more open water, the waves were a bit bigger, but we thought we could get into another cove on the island, so we just [View Full Entry]

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Ilha Grande After Rio we headed down the Brazilian Coast to a little island called Ilha Grande, for some relaxation (because Rio had just been so exhausting!). The weather improved (i.e. it stopped raining) which is good when one wants to lie on the beach. Ilha grande reminded me a bit of some of the Thai islands - lovely white sandy beaches, no roads to speak of, just green rainforest covering the entire centre of the island. Helen and Fergus were still with us, so the consumption of caipirinhas continued....... It was quite a fun place - we even managed to [View Full Entry]

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Endelig i Rio!! Der ble vi moett av to blide og solbrune soerlendinger som vi skulle tilbringe noen dager sammen med paa Ilha Grande. Etter en liten time med skravling og nye billettkjoep, satt vi paa bussen igjen, en to-tre timers busstur til Angra Dos Reis hvor vi igjen skulle videre med ferje til Ilha Grande. Saa etter over 30 timer med reising var vi endelig paa plass, paa denne fantastiske oeaya vi hadde hoert saa mye om. Ganske saa slitne etter all reisinga gjorde vi ikke all verden foerste kvelden, spiste god middag med Asbjoern og Kristian, skravlet masse og [View Full Entry]

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