Brazil - Ilha Grande

Ihla Grande, the famed island 150km south of Rio, was our next stop. We took a 8am bus from Paraty, arriving 2 hours later at Angros Dos Reis to take the 11am ferry across. The large catamaran ferry take around an hour to cross with last twenty minute spent rounding the island to Abraao, the only town on Ihla Grande. It was quite a cloudy day but the island still looked beautiful with it's tall peak behind the town and rolling hills covered with green Atlantic rainforest. The pathways are all sandy and buzzed with bicycles and people - the only cars allowed on the island seemed to be a tractor and an ambulance.

We checked into the accommodation and then headed to the little beach near the port for an hour or so before the heavens opened! Luckily there are a few shops to potter through. And we were okay having a bit of downtime.

The following morning we had decided we would hike to Lopes Mendes beach, one of the most beautiful in Brazil. A 3hr hike through rainforest, we were very glad we had opted to wear decent hiking shoes. There were some steep sections that were rocky and muddy and people in flip flops were having a hard time of it.

It was a beautiful walk with views of the beaches, birds and one massive shongololo, around 75cm, and nearly trodden on by Warren!

Lopez Mendes was fantastic, a long beach on a bay with waves, clear water and the finest white sand either of us had walked on. It squeaked under our feet. It was cloudy again, but on a beautiful blue day the beach must be magnificent. As we'd see, Brazil is spoilt for beaches and islands. We had gone armed with rolls, tomatoes, cheese and ham slices and picnicked on the beach. I should also mention we had our very own pepper for the rolls that Wassie bought - through all our meals in Brazil, not one place had pepper. We'd had a good two hours on the beach and body surfing in the waves before it started to rain and after hanging around under the trees for a while, we decided it was time to hike back. Half an hour in the heavens opened on us and it was quite a hike. But we made it back in 2hrs 15, very grateful for a nice shower at the end.

That evening we found a great little place serving various barbecued wraps and noodle dishes. There was live music and the food was delicious and reasonable - all in all a winner in backpack land! The noodle chef heard we were from South Africa, so came over for a chat as he was looking at going traveling to the motherland in the coming year.

The next day we had a little beach time, a potter around Abraao and caught the 12.30 ferry back to mainland to head to Rio.