Only have a few minutes on Marcio's computer- we're back in Rio after a bit of a nightmare! We ran from our pousada to the pier this morning with our super heavy packs and got to the end just as the catamaran we'd booked onto to come back to the mainland was pulling away...it brought back lots of memories of racing to and missing the ferry to France on numerous occasions but the dilemma now was that we had nearly run out of money and there are no banks or cashpoints on the Island. Anyway to cut a long story short we managed to get a lift with another company for half of what they were asking after emptying out our pockets and we're now round at Marcio's dropping off our stuff before going up to the favela samba party tonight. Although now I hear that we may be going to watch the football en route- we'll see what happens....

Have been keeping a diary for the last three days and will copy and paste it for you now.... Hope it makes sense haven't got time to read it back through!

Tuesday 16th June

Lying on a hammock listening to the waves on our balcony looking out
over the harbour. We're now at pousada mare et claude on Ihla Grande.
I know we won't have Internet access for a while so have decided to
write a little diary each day to transfer onto the blog. We got up
early this morning as Marcio's friend said he would give us a lift to
the port before he started work as a cab driver for a good price. We
were keen to do this as missing it would mean having to get two buses
for the same amount one of which wasn't scheduled (not that it matters
so much as there are always small van owners looking to take gringos
who have missed the early morning official departure.)

Anyway we got up very tired early but of course had failed to remember
that Brazilian time usually means at least an hour after that
scheduled so spent the day dreaming aboutthise extra 2 hours that we
could have been in bed that we spent waiting! We appreciated being in
the taxi for the long old journey though- especially as our diver was
able to negotiate a boat for us to get a lift to the island.

The boat was a sweet little schooner with only us and a local on it.
The 2 hour journey across was beautiful but also, unfortunately,
choppy so of course I duly threw up over the side as expected by
anyone that knows me.

The island is beautiful. It was an old Lepar colony and then to deal in slaves. After that it was a prison Island but because of the narute of it´s location prisoner´s were given pretty much free rein. The government decided it was too good to be used for prisoners when they discovered them living in beautiful huts on the beach in 1994 and now it´s sole income is tourists to the nature reserve. There is just a small village on one side and the huge jungle and mountains behind it is a national park. It is sad, however that the stunning surroundings are not overly appreciated
within the village itself and there is a lot of litter.

The pousada is beautiful- 3 rooms in the upstairs if a house right on
the beachfront. It has a resident young friendly sausage dog and a fat
cat that even came down the beach with us for dinner to a lovely place
selling delicious fish stew with rice and manioc. Other food
highlights include a lethal fantastic ice cream parlour where you help
yourself to all the flavours an toppings and pay by the weight of your
pot or cone at the end!

So here we are in the hammock- how lucky we are!

Wednesday 17th June

Woke up today on paradise to the sound of lots of rustling. Charles
was keen to get down to the free breakfast of the now expected
everywhere plastic cheese and ham with sliced long life bread. I had a
cup of mint tea and immensely enjoyed getting my hot water from a
coffee machine run off a car battery!

We wandered off down the front to decide what to do for the day. As
the Island is essentially a huge mountainous jungle there are no roads
or cars. The only village is where we are staying and it's just a tiny
strip of harbour so you can only go anywhere by boat. There are so
many beautiful attractions here from caves to waterfalls and lagoons
and we only have 2 days so decided to do a grand boat tour of the
island tomorrow with 10 stops. The only place it doesn't have time to
go because you can't access it directly by boat is Lopez Mendes- a 4
mile long stunning beach that is apparently ranked in the top ten in
the world.

We decided that we couldn't miss that and so a fisherman offered to
take us to where we had to walk to, wait and then return back for £10.
We felt it worth it so hopped on his little schooner with his cocker
spaniel Bobby and off we set. We had seriously underestimated the
distance it may be (we had previously considered canoing- thank god we
didn't!) and the slow speed of the boat so I must say we really got
our money's worth with a 2 hour trip!

When we jumped off the boat and walked up the jungle path to go over
the top of a hill on order to get to lopez mendes there were an awful
lot of people coming the other way. Now I know you might find it hard
to feel sorry for us but the reason was that as soon as we'd rambled
over the top and stepped our feet onto the squeaky sand it started to
rain!

Despite the big black clouds and drizzle it was stunning- made even
more enjoyable by the fact that we were the only people on the 4km
stretch. The only soul that joined us was a lovely young playful dog
that chased sticks, ran up and down and then clamboured all the way up
to the top of the rocks with us at one end to sit and enjoy an amazing
view.

After we had walked up and down and climbed rocks and done everything
else we could in the rain, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't
be able to put the books and suncream we had hopefully brought with is
to use and set off back over the hill to our waiting lift home. The
novelty had worn off a little on the way back but the windy drizzle
lashing against my face did prevent me from throwing up so there's
always a positive. Besides, as you may know, there are worse things to
complain about on a Wednesday!

So here we are again, back in our hammock on the terrace of our
pousada overlooking the harbour. Full of a delicious hearty meal of
local fish with a yummy sauce and rice- it's been impossible to know
what we're ordering but we've just gone for a dish for two in the fish
section and it's been yummy every time. Most things on the menu are
for two here although it comes out in huge dishes that could easily
feed more with lots of yummy extras on the side.

Looking forward to the boat trip tomorrow!

Thursday 18th June

A lovely day in paradise! Last night I was a bit worried about our
boat trip because there are hundreds on offer and ashamadly we'd
pretty much gone with the first nice lady we found that spoke English!
I realised with horror after our very slow experience yesterday that
we hadn't even asked what boat it was on..imagine our glee when a
lovely shiny new high speed rib came up to the pier. Of course the old
schooners are beautiful but they are also extremely slow and very
rolling so not great for sickers like us! This was perfect for a big
trip round the whole island and meant we'd see loads. The other bonus
was that it was only us and 4 others. We sped off with 80's tunes
blaring (his favourite was whitney's classic queen of the night- we
heard it 11 times on the trip) and passed the place we had schlepped
to yesterday in 10 minutes! Most peoples music hell but Charles was
in his element, at one point he was even happy to hear the pet shop
boys.

The tour of the island was fantastic- beautiful deserted beaches,
amazing jungle and clear lagoons where the fish ate out of your hands.
We sat at the front of the boat sunbathing an felt very sorry for
anyone at work as we dashed through stunning surroundings. We came
across at least 6 turtles- they were swimming right by the boat and
were so breathtaking when you see them. Unfortunately we learned
pretty early on that our guide didn't speak a word of English so we're
not to hot on what we saw or any history but it was all beautiful!

We stopped for some yummy fried fish and jumped out the boat to swim
to deserted beaches. We were so lucky with the weather it was perfect.
Anyway I'll stop before you're sick...! Another early start tomorrow
to get a boat and then bus back to Rio for samba in the favela
tomorrow night- can't wait!