Ilha Grande - Paradise

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Sorry about the delay since my last blog, the internet on Ilha Grande is extremely slow and it takes over 10 minutes to open one page but one of our friends on the campsite has kindly lended me his lap top which some how has fast broadband!!

So we have had 6 days on Ilha Grande which was after two other days in Rio. I will start off with the two days in Rio!
After my last blog we went on a night out in Rio with two Dutch Guys (Saunders and Jasper) and one French guy (matthieu, who turned out to be quite a scrooge!). The night was good fun, we went first to a bar restaurant kind of place where the lads had there dinner and myself and Anne just drank a couple of beers, after there I think we found the most fancy bar in Lapa as we were supposed to give them our passports just to enter. Unfortunately for them I dont carry my passport but they still let me in with a cover charge. We stayed in the bar for a few more drinks before trying to find our way back to the Hostel for a well needed rest. The following day as usual we were awake at 7am so we had a quick shower and breakfast. After breakfast we went to Christo Redempto on the top of the hill. The views from here were absolutely amazing. You get a train up to the top which also boasts some nice views of Rio in every direction! That night brazil were playing against Chile in the World Cup qualifier so we stayed with all the people in the Hostel to watch this which turned out to be quite a good match, I still havent heard how Ireland got on against South Africa, I presume it was not exciting as I got no reports.

After Rio we hopped on a three hour bus down to Angra Dos Reis where we got a two hour ferry to Ilha Grande, not sure how exactly to put the island into words as it is absolutely beautiful. It is a tropical island with no cars or anything of the sort. There is treks that go all around through tropical rainforest and each one leads to a number of beaches. On our first day we thought we were going for a leisurely stroll to a nearby waterfall which turned out to be 2 hours uphill but was very nice. That taught us a lesson. We are staying on a campsite here on the largest part of the island. So far we have seen more wildlife on the campsite than on our treks. We have fed monkeys who come up to the tents from the trees and last night we had a visit from a Capivara which is a large Rodent which eat grass at the side of rivers. They look a little like an otter and are fairly large. All we could here was something rustling outisde the door of our tent and we were getting worried it could have been something dangerous but they are nice and harmless. Aparently they are mainly found in the wetland of The Pantanal! We have also seem red parrots, and lots of large butterflies!! Other than that we have our time has been spent trekking and spending the evenings with our new friends on the campsite having a few beers.

Tomorrow we are heading off to to go to Salvador which is around 28 hours on a bus from Rio so you might not hear from me for a while! I will try and get another blog up on arrival at Salvador and will try not to keep it another week before my next one. Unfortunately I still cant find anything to fit my memory card with my photos so for the time being you will have to wait patiently 😉

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