Blogs from Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 4

We arrived to Angra dos Reis after a very comfortable three and a half hour bus journey from Rio. It was then a quick (45 minute) catamaran ride to the main town on Ilha Grande called Villa Do Abraao. We found our first hostel just along the beachfront, we had to stay at 3 because of availability, and were welcomed to the sight of a 9 person dorm. Where there were 3 sets of bunk beds stacked 3 beds high!!! We decided to go for a meal this night, as there was no kitchen available. An extremely nice looking restaurant on the beach caught our eye (Pe Na Areia), where we had an amazing fish dish accompanied by caipirinhas and live music. Day 1- The next morning we had to move to our second hostel, which ... read more

Rob Writes Before we could set off for Ilha Grande we had a few things to do. Firstly, bring the washing in. Not something I enjoy doing at home but it was made worse by the fact I had to hang out of a window to reach our clothes, which weren’t even dry! So again we went down to the hostel kitchen and stuffed our faces with all you can eat breakfast while waiting for our transfer to Ilha Grande (£28). The transfer was by a small van, which wasn’t too bad really. Air con and leather seats are more than we were used to. We were then taken to a small town where we would then have to catch a boat, which was a bigger pain in the arse than it should have been. The ... read more

We woke up on our final morning in Rio, packed up our stuff, had breakfast and then waited for our transfer to Ilha Grande, which is a small island just off the coast about 2 hours drive from Rio. Our transfer arrived and we got in for another near death ride to the port. After about 2 hours we arrived at a tiny port with a little boat waiting for us to take us the 45 minutes over to the island. We initially planned to stay there for 2 nights but as soon as we arrived and were greeted with the sight of a pristine beaches, little restuarants right on the beach and endless hills of junglesque forest, we immeadiately decided that we were here for the longhaul! We walked about 5 minutes up the beach ... read more

It's been my final week in Brazil and I'm really starting to feel like a Brazilian. I've been getting history lessons from the locals and my tour guide thinks I'm half way there with my love of Brazilian barbeques, acai, guarama and caiparihas. I've been doing my best to speak Portuguese but after several incidents ordering food where the staff just laughed at me, my ego is feeling slightly bruised. The pronunciation is so difficult, god knows what I was actually saying! I must sound ridiculous but at least I'm providing some amusement along the way and it's nice trying. I really love Brazil but it is so expensive, I feel like I'm bleeding money at the moment. My drinking levels have dropped dramatically. It makes the UK look cheap. I knew it was going to ... read more

Caipirinhas are the drink of choice in Brazil, a delicious but potent mix of fresh limes, sugar and cachaça (cane rum). We'd already begun our infatuation with this cocktail during Carnaval but arriving in Trindade we realised this was the perfect caipirinha destination; surrounded by beautiful beaches and with Paraty (the second highest Cachaça producing region in the country) nearby there was no shortage of supply or demand!  Our trip from Saõ Paulo to Paraty was a return to local bus hopping, which was great, but did entail standing around for hours at obscure bus stops. Once in the beautiful, historic and ultra cobbled streets of Paraty we realised that the famed name tag also came with a price tag, one that we couldn't afford. So we took one last bus of our day to tiny Trindade, ... read more