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Published: August 23rd 2007
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Beautiful Ilha Grande
The view back towards the village from the trail to Lopez Mendez beach. Yippeeee!!!! Finally we´ve found some sunshine on the island of Ilha Grande (pronounced Gran-gee, Portugues is officially a crazy language!), about two hours south of Rio.
The island is absolutely beautiful, not the most impressive beaches in the world, but the setting is just gorgeous, backed by impressive rainforest reminisant of Cape Tribulation in Australia.
We didn´t have the best start on the island, as we arrived on the island at full moon when the sea goes mental and high tide engulfs all of the beach and some of the inland walkways. It was a blessing in disguise because it meant we couldn´t walk around to the hostel we´d book and found ourselves a much better located posada (guesthouse) for the same price that was absolutely lovely. We figured to hell with socialising in a hostel, lets get a few good nights sleep in a clean bed.
We spent five days chilling out on the beaches around the island. It wasn´t all lazing about in the sunshine though as some people (ie Paul) have a finite amount of time they can spend on a beach before getting bored. Luckily the island is full of (unmarked!) walking trails through
the rainforest to lovely secluded beaches, prison ruins, aquaducts and swimming holes. One of the longer trails leads to Lopez Mendez apparently one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. The two hours of hiking was definitely worthwhile, the great views and cute monkeys more than made up for the scrambling over slippery rocks. The beach itself didn´t disappoint with crystal clear water and nearly white sand. We braved the water for about 30 seconds before our feet went numb - it may be sunny, but it is still winter afterall and the water temperature certainly reflected that. Thankfully we didn´t have to hike back and instead caught the boat back to the village, just in time for some pick and mix ice-cream.
The evenings were spent drinking beer and cocktails in the main square by the pier, watching the world go by. It felt very much like a real holiday, we did zero chores, drank way too much and even stayed in bed until 9.45 on some days!
After Ilha Grande we headed further south to the small town of Paraty (pronounced Parachee - I rest my case) for three days. Again the weather was kind and
Breaktime on the hike to Lopez Mendez
Ok! So it wasn´t quite all hardcore hiking!! we managed to get two days of sunshine. We spent a day wandering around the pretty cobbled streets of the old town, admiring the brightly coloured houses and cute churches. The cobbles are massive and challenging for even the most experienced flip-flops wearers. We also did some island hopping on a schooner trip. Again the water was freezing, so we just sat back nd watch all the crazy Brazilians on our trip jump into the water. After our alcoholic over-indulgence on Ilha Grande we´d been determined to detox. This lasted exactly two days, when the turn in weather forced us to spend the day drinking caipirinha, the unofficial brazilian national drink, at a pavement bar on the harbour.
Having given up entirely on the shocking bus service in Brazil we are getting a taste for the high life and flying to our next destination, Salvador. Being 24 hours north of Rio we´re hoping that the weather will be really hot and the sea warm enough for some aqua fun.
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