Ilha Grande

We met a couple of girls in our Rio hostel who were from Leeds and studied languages at uni, both Spanish and Portugese so my plan was to follow them around seeing as we could speak barely any. Shame I bored them to sleep on the 2 hour journey to Ilha Grande. I always bore Jen to sleep so that`s no surprise!

The girls woke up and we were at the small port on the mainland, setting sail to Ilha Grande on a small 30 min boat ride. Mad photo skills in capturing the Brazilian flag flying proud on our boat.

The island was much bigger than we expected when we got there. Loads of people milling about on the pier which is where we spent some nights drinking (2 quid for a litre of cachaça).

Our hostel was pretty basic and the owner could barely speak any English so we had to deal with a lot of hand gestures. Where are those girls when you need them?! It was a right mission getting there too, up a massive hill with 20 kilos strapped to our backs and 10 kilo on the front. Jen had to stop a few times claiming she couldnt make it. Good training for Machu Pichu though. We met some cool people in the hostel like this Swedish girl who tought us how to play some weird space ship drum thingy, better than the pretencious guitar.

A treat was in order as it was Valentines Day so we splashed out on this seafood/fish platter which was amazing. Everything in Brazil gets served with a portion of rice and beans as well, like this platter wasnt enough.

The next day we went on a boat trip with some guys we met in Rio and some of their friends to see some of the islands lagoons, beaches and other hidden surprises. One of these surprises was a random cave half way round the island which had a super tiny entrance. Heres Jen after she peered down into it.

I wasn`t kidding about how tight it was, here`s our mate Gil looking stuck on his way back up as we ventured down.

But it was worth getting to the bottom (not that this photo proves). There was a underground stream running where the sunlight hit water. There was a shimmering reflection from the water which seemed to light up the cave. The tour guides had to hold your legs as you peered down under the water into the abyss or else the stream would have swept you deeper into the underground cave, whilst all the time the cave roof centimetres from your head. The view in the water was epic though, crystal clear water with marine life floating about with the sunlight illuminating the underwater world.

On the way back, we stopped off at some lagoons, the water as crystal clear as the cave. It was a good place to snorkel and see some exotic fish, one of the lads we were travelling about with was lucky enough to see a sea turtle and some sea horses.

The following day we ventured back out with the same group of friends but this time on a 3 hour trek to one of the top beaches Brazil has to offer, through the vegetation the island is swallowed in. It was gruelling work with some of the terrain pretty tricky to traverse.

We were told that once we reach a small beach that there was only another 20 minutes to go so we were super happy when we came across a small rocky beach after just 90 mins of walking. We thought people had overestimated how long it took or we were super quick.

However it wasn`t to be, we had to go across another 3 beaches before we reached the beach we were actually after. Jen`s face says it all below!

It was all worth it in the end though after an actual 3 hour trek. Super white sand and water as blue as it could be. Voted one of the best beaches in the world and you can see why, Lopes Mendes Beach was finally there for us to enjoy (Jen more than me, I hate the beach!). Google it, as this photo doesn`t really capture it in all it`s glory, and if you get time, get yourselves out here!

Here we are relaxing with an ice cold beer to celebrate our mammoth journey (there was some dude selling them at the beach entrance, I love that guy). 

Here are all our travelling buddies enjoying the beach and sun, me chilling out in the shade with my beer. After that trek there was no way we were going to walk back again, so we caught the taxi boat back for a fiver each. For some crazy reason Apurva (on the far right) decided he was going to walk back and managed it in 80 minutes, not sure how, maybe we were just super slow!

After a day of deserved chilling out after a morning of hiking, the few days weren`t quite so chilled, nursing all the bites from mosquitioes and other ants and things in the sand. Was making me itch so bad that I made them bleed.