Wow! Rio was amazing but I was ready to leave and let my liver have a break. Five days of hitting all of Rio's hotspots both day and night had took it's toll!
It was time to venture south and do a complete 180 degree turn on it and to visit the island of Isla Grande. Thankfully I was never alone for any of my sejours so far and this was no exception. Three of the crew from the hostel in Rio were all making the same trip so it was wise to stick together, whatnot with splitting taxis four ways, and so forth.

The sun was splitting the stones that day as we left Rio's rodoviaria, 30, in winter, you know how it is! The bus journey was easy this time around, taking only 3-4 hours if memory serves me correctly. What made this journey special though was the scenery. Between yapping away, sneaking in 40 winks and the spot of angry birds here and there, we never paid much attention to what was outside of the window until it was totally shouting at you in the face, how beautiful this part of the country was! We had ascended many metres at this stage and the mountain road was one of the most beautiful yet that I've seen. Out the left hand window, the Atlantic Ocean was in site, but what was famous for this part of the region was the large amount of islands that dotted the bays, lush green islands with rocky shorelines, similar to what you would see along the Adriatic spoilt your choice of view. Eventually we landed in the port town of Angras dos Rios from where we would later board the catamaran to Isla Grande. Now don't go and say that I was poshing it up with a catamaran but it was the only boat we could catch and it had about 100 seats in it, so it wasn't that posh. SeaCat posh, the p**** on waves, as I like to call it! Landing on the island after a 40 minute sail, the port was teeming with people, some about to board to go back to the mainland, others walking back home after a day at the beach with scorched looks on their faces. The village there was the main location on the island, as big as it was that was the hub and they manage to do everything without the beloved motorcar. Fair enough though, they had three on the island, on for fire, ambulance and the dustbin men but that's it, everything else was done on a wheelbarrow! You should have seen the boys from the ESB there pushing over a telegraph pole over a humpback bridge. It was a game to them not a job, great laid back attitude that works.

We arrived at our accommodation for the next few nights, Biergarten was its name! Yes, it had few foreign beers but hold your whist a bit! It was a bar first of all and recently they added rooms. It was a nice place, clean and all but lacked the character that I would have liked. One thing that struck me though was that when I went rooting in my room around the 8 o'clock mark, I find not one, but the whole lot of my room mates fast asleep. I had heard this was a place to chill out but come on, there's children up later than this!
We bumped into another two lads from the UK that night and we all headed down the beach to another hostel, Aquarius, which had their doors open to the public for the night. Didn't stay to long, brutal music and over priced drink. With the first sign of a yawn, I was gawn! Back at the hostel I had yet to attempt the obstacle of getting into the bottom part of the bunk. I don't know what kind of person it was designed for, but it wasn't for me, that's for sure. Someone had said they were more like a coffin. I thought that a call to the 3D designers of Transformers movies would be more beneficial to me on trying to get into this thing. 'Tuck legs in to make truck trailer', 'tuck arms in to make truck exhaust, just like Optimus Prime'. It was some mission and that wasn't the end. If you've ever been a transformer or know anyone who has, they'll tell you that they get massive cramps when their in truck mode for too long. With a roar and kick that nearly broke the end of the bed, poor Optimus P was in a spasm in truck mode, locked into the bottom part of the bed! Sore feckin thing, leg cramps, feeling the pain for the following day, but anyways.

Next day we rose bright and early. Five of us decided we'd rent some snorkel gear and some sea kayaks. We had planned a route around the island however we had not taken into account how big it was nor waves nor the currents for that's matter, sher just being able to think we were able to do it was enough. Foolish thoughts. The snorkel gear was rented as usual. Hello, how much, sign here, return at this time. Easy. The kayaks however were another matter. They were on the beach but the owner was no where to be seen initially until we waited for a few minutes and we heard a whistle... Not a whistle that you make with your fingers between your mouth but a referees whistle! This fella came storming around the corner blowing his whistle like there was no tomorrow!! For anyone that can remember the old WWF wrestler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, that's exactly what he looked like. Big long mullet, chest stuck out proud, all he was missing was the 2x4 piece of lumber! He had his whistle though, knew how to us it and made himself known. When we said hello, all he said in return was Brazil, Brazil, Brazil, Brazil! Whatever he was on, I don't know, but I wanted some. After some time of us putting kayaks in the water and not him, thanks mate, we were off. I was on me Todd in a single, with the others in doubles. It was grand for the first while but when your bit used to it it took its toll. We were going along one side of the island trying to find a sandy beach to pull into but to now avail. It was either private or just rocks making it impossible to land safely without damaging the kayak. We decided to turn around as our endeavour to try and hit the beach of Lopez Mendez wasn't going to happen today. I for one was shot and all I wanted to do was hit dry land to get a breather for a short while. Using my experience of many years on the open waters, salvaging others lost bounties and what not, dry land ahoy came within sight, calm and shallow enough for us to swing in and park the boats. There we blew a sigh of relief and basically collapse after a few hours of arm pedalling. We got to snorkel and see some fishys but it was great, poor visibility, a bit like chocolate milk in comparison to the rest of the surrounding islands. No sooner had we
landed that it was time to return to hacksaw Jim Duggan. Our little embarkment on the said island had left a little impression that he was none to please with. Said impression was more like a foot long gash that the lads made in theirs by pushing it up onto the rocks before the swam, oops. Oh course, we all knew that was the reason that the lads we paddling literally in the sea as their kayak was taking on quite a bit more than would be usual. Poor hacksaw Jim, he'd have to get the sap out of the trees and fix that gash because my stupid blank look on my face told him I knew nothing about the incident, never mind me being the first to flee the scene!
Back at the ranch, we relaxed for a bit and had some lunch as we were lee marvin by that stage. It was greeting darker and I was feeling the pain, my eyes were getting heavy and I needed rest, a good nights rest. I enquirer about the time, 7:30, feck! I was about the go to bed earlier that night than my roommates had done the night previous . For shame Peter, for shame.
Day 3 on the big island was my last chance to get to visit Lopez Mendez, the amazing beach on the southern side of the island. Some say that's its in the top ten voted best beaches in the world. Hmm.... Lets find out. I was to do the 2 hour hike with two lads from the states. One of them was a thunderbird, well at least he looked like one with the blonde quiff, Scott, to be precise. And the other, he looked normal, not like a thunderbird. The hike was gorgeous, leading high through the lush forests along the islands coastline and then down through many valleys and beaches until the pathway broke onto Lopez Mendez. I must say it was idyllic, white powdery sand stretching for a couple of kilometres flanked on the rear with high mountains with palm trees closer to us. We were on our Todd when we landed as it was still early. It soon it busier, perhaps one hundred in total so ample enough space to have people minding their own business. A few snoozes later it was time to go back to the town and grab my stuff to go back to the mainland. On the way back we meet some friends hanging from the trees. Little monkeys, with stupid faces, long tails like lemurs with such inquisitive personalities about them too caused great commotion to whomever saw them as they him right in font of your face looking for food or what not. I wanted to give them a cigarette as I didn't have any food on me, but then I thought that monkeys don't smoke cigarettes! Not the monkeys I know. Back at base, after a change and some grub we found ourselves back on the catamaran back to the mainland. Myself and Ben, the English lad I had been travelling with for the last few days were now heading further south to the small town of Paraty.