From Paraty we drove to Angra Dos Reis, where boats depart for Ilha Grande. In Angra Dos Reis we had lunch at a 'per kilo' restaurant, which are popular in Brazil - customers serve themselves from a buffet and then pay according to the weight of their food - it's the same price regardless of the type of food. After lunch I hunted around town for a football to play with when we reached the island and then finally we were on our way...

Ilha Grande is a very pretty island - just a narrow strip of beach and a few rows of buildings surrounded by hills blanketed in thick jungle. Only one small town on the island is inhabited and it is packed with tourists but there is a very chilled out atmosphere, a sort of hippy feel about it. There are no cars and no ATMs.

It was quite a long walk from the harbour, along a muddy path, to find the place where we were staying. The pousada (guesthouse) was nice. Julio took us on a walk around town to point out things of interest. We encountered the wandering cake-selling man, who has a cart with a large selection of yummy cakes and desserts.

That evening we all went to a great fish restaurant on the beach to celebrate Karen's birthday which was the following day - the restaurant had birthday cake and streamers and balloons for her, it was lovely. Rita and I shared a delicious dish with some of the biggest prawns I have ever seen! Later a few of us carried on to a bar beside the pier where, somewhat bizarrely, Phil, Trish, Julio and I ended up debating philosophy over rum and cokes! Once a week there is a disco on the island so Trish, Julio and I decided to check it out - it was great fun and we met some of the Gap Adventures trip leaders (Christian and Jose Luis) and their passengers (crazy Rica!) as well as some sleazy Brazilian boys. Trish and I had such a laugh.

The following day a group of us decided to hike through jungle to the famously beautiful Lopes Mendes beach. There were some lovely views along the way. The walk was supposed to take two and half to three hours so we were very pleased with ourselves when we reached the beach after only an hour and half. In spite of the rain we jumped into the sea for a swim and were happily playing with the football when Christian showed up with some of his passengers and informed us that this was not Lopes Mendes - there was still a long way to go! Hilarious... So we dried ourselves and set off again and, after walking through the rain for some time, the sun broke through just as we arrived at Lopes Mendes - perfect! I spent the afternoon sunbathing and then wandered back to a spot where I could catch a boat to town.

We went to a good 'per kilo' restaurant in the evening. Torrential rain began while we were there and we spent a long time waiting for a break so that we could run home before eventually conceding and just heading on anyway and getting soaked. We started to watch DVDs back at the guesthouse but I was so tired that I kept falling asleep and had to hit the sack.

The next day was the event that I had all been looking forward to for ages - the much-hyped boat trip around the island. What Julio hadn't disclosed was that, because a cruise ship had docked nearby and booked up all the usual boat operators, we didn't actually have a boat to go on! So he spent the morning scrambling around to try to arrange something while we were sitting at the pousada, waiting and wondering... Thankfully it all worked out fine in the end and we shared a boat with Christian and Jose Luis's groups.

It turned out to be a fab day of sunbathing on the deck with free-flowing caipirinha and a delicious barbeque right on the boat. My only criticism is that an awful song (Veo Veo by Los Guajiros del Puerto) was played at ear-bleeding volume continuously all day!

We were kept entertained by a rather tipsy passenger from one of the other groups who went around feeling up and propositioning all the guys on the boat before disappearing into the forest with the boat drivers for a very long time. When they re-emerged they had to hold her to help her swim back to the boat and she arrived with a bloody nose! God only knows what was going on!

The boat stopped in a few places where we could jump off and do some swimming and snorkelling. At one spot we swam to a beach where we could play football - we arranged ourselves into teams of Europe versus the Rest of the World and it all got a bit competitive (and confusing as some people kept switching sides!). It turns out barefoot football on the beach after a few caipirinhas is not such a good idea - four people (including me) ended up with broken toes!!!

After the day's exertions we went for a quick pizza in town and then early to bed. In the morning we took a boat back to mainland but two backpacks were inadvertently left on the island so we had to wait for ages for another boat to bring them before hitting the road to Rio de Janeiro.

I had a really fun and relaxed few days on Ilha Grande, in spite of the mixed weather - it is a cool place.