Ilha Grande

After arriving in Angra dos Reis, we embarked on a speedboat and headed rather quickly out to Ilha Grande. Approaching Abrão, the main village on Ilha Grande, it was hard not to make comparisons to The Beach and Lost. The village is right on the beach and gives way to steep mountainous Atlantic rainforest in every direction, a completely unique and charming place. There are no cars or vehicles on the island which was gives it a chilled out feel. Most activity occurs along the seafront, where people dine with their feet in the sand watching boats pass by, their soundtrack the lapping ocean and nearby musicians strumming guitars, singing chilled out Brazilian numbers. We ate bruschetta followed by fish the first night at one of these restaurants – the former dish being the highlight. For dessert, we grabbed a tasty Nutella crepe and caught some more live music on a stage in the village plaza. We headed home to our lovely air conditioned dorm and slept like logs.

Having booked onto the trip round the island the night before, we woke up excited for the day ahead. One of the girls in our room was booked onto the same trip with her German pal so we headed down to the pier with them. After being split up with our new mates, we climbed into a nice white speedboat and made friends with an English girl called Brionny and a nice family from Rio. The driver took us round a few coves and bays before making our first stop. Here I snorkelled out over the rocks and saw some pretty colourful fish, then reunited with our hostel buddies, we scrambled up to a big rock where people were jumping off into the sea. After seeing a few rather nasty bellyflops, we took turns launching ourselves out and into the sparkling turquoise water. Next up we drove by a beach with an abandoned prison where the Portuguese kept their most dangerous prisoners – a Latin American Alcatraz if you will. We then cruised into some pretty amazing beaches and swam about before exploring the beaches on foot. Praia da Aventura being our favourite with its crazy horizontal palm tree and beautiful beach! Before going home, the driver stopped off so we could have lunch but having made a thrifty packed lunch at breakfast, we spent half an hour watching hundreds of crazy and colourful crabs play hide and seek from our hammocks. It was then I realised, I wasn’t very well. A combination of sun and the very choppy speedboat had done me in it seemed. When we got back, I tried to sleep it off but had to run through the hostel to be sick. Claire was a saint and looked after me, bringing me drinks and the like. I couldn’t face eating but Claire ventured out for some Thai noodles but I was told they didn’t live up to Jino’s on Otley Road!!

With me feeling a bit better the next morning, we decided to take a half day tour to the island’s blue lagoon, which from the photos looked incredible. It was a bit cloudy and the boat was a schooner, a slower more relaxing ride than yesterday’s speedboat. We set sail but as the guide didn’t speak English we couldn’t understand anything so ended up following the other, mostly Brazilian passengers like sheep. After hopping off the boat and walking a pointless 10mins, we then jumped back on and sailed over to the blue lagoon. There seemed to be too many other boats and our driver anchored us too far from the lagoon where the water was deep so our snorkelling experience was short lived. We made another stop for some lunch at some average beach cafe and to make matters worse the boat broke down 3 times on the way back!! We felt very disappointed but having got the tour half price to begin with due to a very stoned tour rep, we then complained and got our money back in full. We would have definitely preferred to have had a good tour rather than the cash but still, could be worse. That night we enjoyed some Mexican food, probably the best of the trip, Claire had chicken nachos and I got a pulled pork burrito. We washed them down with some caip’s and walked back to the hostel along the seafront.

Our final day was hot and baking, nearing 40 degrees. Perfect conditions however to see what is said to be one of the worlds best beaches, Lopes Mendes. After another short and relaxing schooner-boat ride we arrived at a jetty on a secluded beach. From here it was a 20 minute walk through the jungle to Lopes Mendes, this being the only way to access it. We hiked past huge bamboos plants, tropical trees and even spotted a little monkey! Arriving at the beach, we realised why people had been raving about it! 3km of the whitest, finest sand and the most crystal blue water we’d ever seen. The majority of the beach was empty and untouched with no cafes, shops or buildings in sight. A handful of beach carts were the only means of getting food and drink but even they were running out of water by the afternoon! We found some shade under an almond tree at the back of the beach and laid down but every half an hour we had to sprint across the sand to cool off in the sea! Before heading back we took a walk along the beach until the towels and people disappeared…it truly was paradise and we were both stunned at the beauty of the place – marvelling at both the water clarity and secret setting.
That evening after moving hostels and cooling off, we went to a very busy pizza place and shared a big half and half one, each choosing a different topping. It was delicious and although Claire felt sun-stroky before, she perked up a bit after so we walked back along the beach and enjoyed a milkshake sat on the sand watching a thunderstorm out to sea.

The next morning, it was time to leave so we took a boat back to the mainland where a minivan took us to Paraty, our next destination where we would spend Christmas!