Blogs from Ilhabela, São Paulo, Brazil, South America

IIhabela, Brazil is a small jungle island. We arranged for a tour of the island which included a visit to a waterfall but the guide was only available in Spanish or Portuguese so Costa asked us to take another excursion where they could provide an English-speaking guide. We agreed. We were told we would be taking a jeep tour through the jungle, to wear lots of bug spray due to mosquitos and then we would be transferred to a beach where we would board a Schooner (a long pirate-like boat) back to the port. I will preface this excursion by saying that I was interested in this excursion last year many months ago but it said we had to swim from the Schooner to the beach and Kamie didn’t want to do that. This time, the ... read more

Our Brazilian friend, Edi, drove us to the car rental agency in the southern suburbs of Sao Paulo. He also lent us a GPS involuntarily programmed to avoid the major highways!... which made it challenging to get out of the city! We left around 10am after rush hour and we quickly reached Santos and the ocean. We followed the coastal road all the way to Sao Sebastiao. Sao Paulo is surrounded by big mountains covered in lavish forests. After 10 days spent in humongous Sao Paulo, my mom was excited to get away from the city and she took in a big breath at the first beach we stopped at. The beach was so wide at low tide. Other than vultures (yes, the actual birds!), there was absolutely nobody but us on the beach. My life ... read more

The 4 hour bus from Paraty to Ihlabela was really scenic. I think I read that stretch is known as the Emerald Coast (or something similar), and for a good reason. Luscious green mountains to the right, blue water to the left. We a passed a lot of enticing little beach towns on the way - if we were driving ourselves we probably would have stopped many times, maybe for the night. But on the bus we had to just hang tight and enjoy the scenery. Ilhabela is an island (ilha means island in portuguese), reached by a short 15 minute ferry ride from Sao Sebastiao on the mainland coast. The ferry is for cars too, and is actually free for pedestrians. Luckily the ferry departs fairly close to the bus station in Sao Sebastiao so ... read more

Wij zien hier aanbeland op Ilhabela, een eilandje ergens bij Sao Paulo, Ilhabela wil dus 'mooi eiland' zeggen, maar het is helemaal niet zo mooi... Het werd beschreven als eiland met idylische stranden, watervallen, vlinders,... de stranden zijn klein en niet zo mooi, de meest bezochte waterval is de Cachoeira de Toca en we hebben hem gedoopt tot de Toca-pisser, omdat het echt ne zielige kleine waterval is met ne pisstraal. Verder zitten er hier uitzonderlijk een paar grote vlinders, maar voor de rest zit dat hier vol met agressieve muggen die lijken op fruitvliegjes, maar als ze je steken, bloedt die wonde direct. Je zit heel de dag muggenrepellent te spuiten en nog steken die, om gek van te worden. Maw. dit eiland is helemaal niet wat we verwacht hadden, mede waarschijnlijk omdat het nog ... read more

Day2 - Day0 and 1 was lively enough - there was plenty turbulence which made for an interesting flight - how those things stay u p with that battering I´ll never work out. I narrowly missed getting a voluntary off load payment of 600 euro and hotel +meals in heathrow becuse my bag was in transit - what a pain! 288 for an open return to SA would have been class - I wouldn´t have minded as my check in bagage could have travelled on RyanAir it was so light. Day 1 I managed to get in and out of Sao Paolo without incident ( the roads seem more dangerous than the insects and diseases There were two recent wrecks on the journey- two buses and about 5 hours later I was in this little place ... read more