Ilha Grande

Our journey to Ilha Grande started rather well. We had booked a transfer through our hostel and, on the morning of our departure, a private car arrived to pick us up. We were joined by three lovely Irish girls who we hit it off with straight away! It had begun to rain in Rio the night before and had not stopped since. Road safety in Brazil is touch and go at the best of times so add to that monsoon rains and a cabby who thought himself to be a formula one driver and you've got yourself an interesting ride! Treacherous is putting it mildly! The road to the port was carved through the mountains so we had sheer cliff faces either side of us. We started to think there would be no need to visit Igauzu Falls later in our trip as there were huge waterfalls forming either side of us. By some miracle our driver managed to dodge the numerous mudslides, rockslides and fallen trees all whilst alternating his focus between the pretty girl sat next to him and the little TV installed on the dashboard!

Sadly, it looks like we brought the English weather with us because Rio experienced it's worst floods in 5 years and over 4000 people were made homeless. We were hoping the bad weather would not follow but, as is our luck, our wishes would not come true.

Sporting our lovely rain macs (although mine is a poor excuse for one) we jumped onto the boat for the 45 minute journey to Ilha Grande. Having been there before, I promised Harry he was in for a treat. Paradise island and all that! I think instead he thought we'd moved from one favela to another. The sand paths had turned to dirty mush, the rubbish tips had flooded and were pouring down the streets and the whole town had lost power. Never fear, there's always beer! We decided to find our hostel and 'spruce up' which meant dumping our bags and looking for the bar. I thought our hostel was really nice but Harry is still not convinced that any hostel can be referred to in such a way. We were joined by the two Danish guys staying in our dorm and, shortly after, our fellow journey survivors. After many caipirinhas and beers later we headed to their hostel to continue the night. At 3am we decided to head back, however, lack of power meant that the path to our hostel had been cast into total darkness! It was either camp out where we were or brave it. With three of us holding hands we used the light on Harry's phone to guide us back. At one point we were nearly knocked over by a stampede of stray dogs that seemed to dominate the island!

The weather the next day was much the same and, unfortunately, there was not an awful lot to do when it it was raining. Numerous games of sh*thead were played followed by a gorgeous fish dinner and our first taste of brazilian wine by the marina. Yet another powercut that night meant that the aircon ceased to exist in our room. This was an open invitation for every mosquito on the island to come and feast on our unsuspecting tasty bodies!

Come rain or shine, we were determined to do something 'islandy' with our next day. We decided to head to the beautiful beach, Lopez Mendes (google it as our pictures do not do it justice). We were told we could either do a 3 hour hike or catch a 40 minute boat journey to the beach. Being the keen, active travellers we are we decided to hike. Jokes...that was not going to happen. We caught the boat and, actually, there was also a half hour trek from where we were dropped off so we didn't feel we were missing out on too much. Even the little trek was amazing! We saw monkeys! On arriving at the beach huge smiles were plastered on our faces. The sun had come out and the beach was everything it was promised to be with crystal clear water and fine white sand. We found paradise!

We spent all day chilling, sleeping and playing in the sea (in truth I went in waist high whilst shouting at Harry like his mother for going out into the monster waves). We caught the boat back, had another quick 'spruce' and found a spot right on the beach to have some dinner. With the waves literally lapping at our ankles, we enjoyed paella and drinks to the sound of a Spanish guitar. It was a lovely way to end our stay on the island.

We woke to begin yet another epic journey to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. More trials and tribulations to follow.......lots more!

Nicola & Harry

Copa Del Sh*thead Scoreboard: NH 13- 14 HF