Ilha Grande & Paraty

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We arrived at Ilha Grande approximately at 7pm after leaving Cococapana early that morning. A journey that was only supposed to take 5 hours ended up taking 9. The bus driver in Rio decided he was hungry and stopped for food with a bus load of people. This made us miss our connection bus which made us miss the last public boat. We finally found a private boat to Ilha Grande but had to pay more money. We reached the port in the dark and was told the hostel we had booked was right at the end of the beach. The only way to reach the Hostel was to walk along in the dark, with our backpacks. We were really scared as there were ditches, holes with crabs in, bats in the trees and the tide was coming in. In the morning we realised the beach was lovely, harmless and peaceful. We decided to do a trail that went to Lopez Mendez said to be the best beach in Brazil. The trail took 3 hours all together taking us to 3 different beaches along the way. Lopez Mendez was certainly the best beach we have seen so far on our trip.

The sand was soft, the waves were great and the water was the pefect temperature. We played on the waves for ages (so worth the hike). Whilst waiting for the boat to Angra we ate on a floating restaurant and the boat picked us up from there. Ilha Grande was meant to be paradise for backpackers but except Lopez Mendez it was overpriced and overated (especially our smelly hostel).

The following day we left for Paraty, a small town which has 65 islands and over 300 beaches. We found a cute B + B run by an english guy from Nolfork (we finally had our own room). That night we found an Indian (very rare in South America) so we decided to try it out. It tasted nothing like Indian and has lots of salts instead of spices. Whilst in Paraty we visited Trindade Beach and went on a boat trip visiting different beaches and islands. We went snorkelling and saw loads of fish and turtles. Paraty was an amazing town, beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife.

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Comments

[Joanna]

I am loving the blog, keep up the good work! The view from the hostel looks like paradise to me, i am not jealous at all!! :) xx

[Lee J]

view from hostel...
... at Ilha Grande looks amazing! xx

[Auntie Sue xx]

Hi Sam Great to hear from you. It looks like you are still having a great time, the beaches look fantastic. Bet you never find a job when all you do it party eat on floating resturants and hang about like beach bums. how utterly boring it must be !! Its much better going to work eveyday in the rain feeling tired and bored ha ha you dont know what you are missing......... Have you got a sun tan yet Sam? enjoy yourselves take care love you loads Auntie sue and the gang x x x x x x x