Ihla Grande


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South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Ilha Grande
November 14th 2013
Published: November 14th 2013
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After a 3 hour drive from Rio De Janeiro we arrived at a small píer and got our boat over to the island of Ilha Grande. The weather was really bad and had been chucking it down all morning, so we took shelter in the middle of the boat. The rain was pouring over the sides of the boat everytime it rocked, resulting in a lovely natural waterfall (basically we all just got soaked).

I was still only in my shorts and t-shirt on the boat so i was absolutely freezing and uncomfortable for the whole journey but after about an hour we finally reached the island. Even in the terrible weather it was easy to see why so many people had talked of this place as paradise. We checked into the Che Lagarto hostel and were fortunate enough to have a 4 bed dorm with no one else in it. Having a room to ourselves was a nice change to tip-toeing around everybody elses stuff. I then decided to open the Windows to see how badly it was raining and i can only describe the view that greeted me as incredible. The clouds hovered around the jungle mountains lower than i had seen before, the beach was in the distance and the boats rocked gently in the calm sea. The view was so unbelievable that i took a photo of me in the window to prove it was real, although it still just looks like i am leaning on a painting. That night we showered and walked down the beach in the rain and found a pub with the Barcelona game on so we took shelter there. I ordered a classic Brazilian dish of rice, black beans, chips, salad and chicken, however when the food came out they had given me fish. I was too hungry to complain and the servings were generous so i just wolfed it down. Once the game had finished we just went back to the room and crashed.

During the night i woke up to a huge party downstairs with drums, loud music and what sounded like a lot of people, however i had no desire to go and join in as i was too tired. At breakfast we saw Lucy and Katie who we had met in Rio and they mentioned they were doing a boat trip that a guy in their room had organised, so we joined them on that. It was still pissing it down so we put on our swimming shorts and coats. Also joining us for the trip was a Columbian couple, a Brazilian girl and the three workers. First stop was a secluded beach where we got out and hiked up the mountain in bare feet. The path was mainly just muddy and as it got steeper we all had a good laugh slipping and sliding everywhere with us being told to fall on our bums. We reached the cachoeira (waterfall) after around an hour. Freeman offered to take a photo for me and as i posed on a rock in front of the waterfall disaster happened, he suddenly slipped on the rock, smashed his knee and ankle and slid down into the water below. My câmera went flying into the rapids and i was really worried Freeman could have hit his head on a rock but luckily he had slipped into a shallow pool at the side of the rapids and wasn´t too badly hurt. He was then searching everywhere for my câmera and somehow managed to find it lodged under a rock, buzzing. However, when he pulled it out of the water the side had opened and the battery had fallen out leaving my ´waterproof´camera flooded. He apologised and i was gutted but at the same time at least he was alright, but this did mean no more câmera for a while!!! We still ended up going in the waterfall and got the girls to take a couple of photos for us. We then quite literally slid our way back down the mountain to another beach and had lunch. After lunch we tried to canoe across the bay but it was a huge fail, until another one of the workers showed Sebastian (our tour guide) how to use the canoe properly so we had a good workout taking it in turns to count the strokes in all of the diferente languages. We finally arrived at a small village that had no shops and had to ask permission to go on their land. After a short walk around we found a football pitch with some local guys playing football so we challenged them to a game. It was really difficult to play on the pitch as it was full of puddles, part mud, part stones, part grass and finally had hundreds of crabs running around it. We played for a good hour but then my ankles and feet were in bits! It was such a good experience to be in an entirely remote place, not be able to speak the language but we could still have a game of football with them, it seemed so surreal but will definitely be a memory i will never forget. Back on the boat we headed out of the bay and back to the hostel, taking it in turns to drive the boat. We nipped to the supermarket to buy dinner and ended up making some less than classy burgers and a bit of rice and then just went to bed as there wasn´t anything going off that night.

Still shattered in the morning we dragged ourselves out of bed as we were hiking to Lopez Mendes beach which we had heard was one of the best in Brazil. The trek rapidly became so steep we were struggling and out of breath and kept stopping for water. The weather was sunny again but luckily we were shaded under all of the trees. The trek took around 2 hours but one bônus was that on the way we saw a small monkey (we think it was a marmoset) in the tree and decided to try and feed it a banana from our bag. I took the banana out of the bag and waved it to the monkey in the tree and to my surprise the little monkey climbed down the trees straight away and came and sat at my feet. I peeled the banana, crouched down and handed the little fella the banana, he took it out of my hand a lot gentler than i expected and then just sat there chilling eating his banana, not even bothered that i was right next to him! When we finally reached Lopez Mendes beach it was beautiful, White sand actually squeaked as you walked on it and the views of the sea and the mountains were really nice. The waves were a good size and the red flags were up so we got battered by a few waves and then retreated to the beach for a nap in the sun. We decided to get the boat back as we were shattered and bought chicken and rice for dinner. Halfway through we were told the kitchen was closed so we quickly finished our chicken but no time for rice meaning we literally had a ´chicken dinner, chicken, just chicken, no rice, no veg, just plain chicken, wonderful. Back at our room two girls had checked in so we no longer had the room to ourselves, however they went straight out and we had yet another early night after a tiring day.

On our final morning in Ihla Grande the girls woke us up quite early so we just went for breakfast. We then packed our bags, caught up with friends on the computer, made some chicken sandwiches and then got our boat back to the mainland. Ihla Grande is definitely an island that you can call paradise, there wasn´t really any nightlife but we had enjoyed our time there. Next stop, Paraty.


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