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Published: January 3rd 2009
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I´m really excited as we sit on the ferry at the port Angra dos Reis, waiting to meet our friends. Jason and Nathalie are over for a 2 week holiday, Sharif and Emelie are right at the start of their year´s adventure. It´s surreal to watch them walk across the port towards the boat...after almost 3 months away it´s strange and wonderful to see their familiar faces.
We´re headed for Ilha Grande, an island just south of Rio. It´s got a strange history as a 16th Century pirates´ lair, then a leper colony and most recently, til the 90´s, a prison for Brazil´s most dangerous criminals. Sounds inviting! But the upshot of this unhappy past is that the island remains undeveloped, boasting virgin rainforest and countless pristine beaches, including Lopes Mendes which is rated as one of Brazil´s most beautiful.
It´s been a cloudy day, and as we hit the sand at the island´s dock of Abraão and head up the beach towards the Hostel Aquario, the heavens open. We are drenched by the time we arrive to the smallest 6 person dorm ever...3 sets of bunkbeds squeezed into a small double...cozy! But the next few days are a
major holiday in Brazil and the island is fully booked, so we´re lucky to get this small space and it´ll have to do for now. On that first night the hostel hosts a bbq party for a hundred or so people from all over the world. Our first Brazilian bbq is generous with the meat, capirinhas and loud forro blasting from the speakers...so totally typical then.
The novelty of the dorm holds for, ooo about 12 hours...we wake to torrential rain and those walls start closing in a bit more. We resolve to find new digs as soon as the national holiday ends and in time for Em´s big 3-0 that is looming ever closer.
Happily the next morning we wake to blue sky and sunshine and spend a lovely day tasting some beach life on Praia Abraãoinho where the mini-breaking Brazilians have been drinking since breakfast. Now sober Brazilians are pretty loud in the first place, but drunk Brazilians take it to a new level, they love a good (ie. bad) sing along and it´s nice to see that the English aren´t the only ones who spend a Bank Holiday drinking more than they can handle!
We spend our third day trekking across the north east tip of the island and realise that the name´s not fibbing...it really is a very big island. It´s a great walk and feels like we´ve really covered alot of ground, until you check the map and realise that 6 hours walking here has barely scratched the island´s little toe. We get a boat back to Abraão as it´s getting close to dusk to risk walking. The ocean is really choppy on the way back and it looks like it´s going to be a stormy night 😞 Ahh well, the walk has left us feeling tired but happy and dinner that evening is devoured as we congratulate ourselves on a meal well-earned. But then we get rained on (again) on the walk back to our dorm...thankfully it´s our last night in there which is just as well as it really ain´t big ebough for the 6 of us AND Reef´s big bum.
We move to our new pad bright and early and it´s quite an upgrade. Pousada Vivenda das Bromelias has been decorated by a local artist with big murals and bold canvases covering every wall. The communal lounge is
a spectacular mezzanine of cream beanbags and twinkling lights; at night it looks like the perfect spot for a birthday party which is just as well as it´s Emelie´s tomorrow.
The birthday girl is blessed with blue skies and sunshine to ease the pain of leaving her 20´s, so we all head to the port for a day on the ocean waves. An afternoon of snorkelling, calamaries and capirinhas sets us up nicely for an evening of birthday cake, bad salsa and a dubious dinner on a stick.
We have 3 more days on the island: one is overcast and two are sunny...woo! Me and Ritch spend the overcast one going to the mainland on a cash-run (no ATMs on the island and plenty of overspending!) and the 2 sunny ones we lounge on beautiful beaches including Lopes Mendes...a long wide palm-fringed stretch with perfect surf. You don´t really swim here...instead you run and dive under the first freezing wave, then get thrown about for a bit before getting spat back onto the beach, tingling and exhilerated. The white sand is so fine that it sqeaks underfoot...it´s pristine perfection right down to the tiny marmosets (little monkeys) in
the trees.
Jay and Nat head back to Rio a day ahead of us, which is a shame as they miss a last day on the island which is hot and sunny enough to burn. We spend it back on Praia Arbaãoinho which is really peaceful this time without the 30-odd Brazilians singing My Way. It´s a stunning little bay surrounded by steep jungle covered hills reflected green in the perfectly calm water.
Ilha Grande is a truly beautiful paradise island; if the sun shines on you then you´re spoiled for choice...messing about in boats, scuba diving, snorkelling or just lazing on one of the beaches. But if it rains then you have to make your own fun as it really is just about the great outdoors here with little nightlife, which is it´s charm.
But, while hanging with the homies from home, it´d be weird not to have a least a couple of nights out and Rio is just the place...it doesn´t matter if it rains a bit, the party won´t stop there.
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