There is only really one word to describe Ilha Grande – BEAUTIFUL! As you will see from the photos, the tranquil, unspoilt beaches of this island were the perfect place for us to relax post-Carnaval madness! We took a 2 hour bus from Rio to the small town of Angra dos Reis (very picturesque with little houses set on a hilltop), and then a 2 hour boat ride out to the island. The blue colour of the sea was absolutely indescribable and we passed many other small marooned islands, some of them no doubt belonging to rich Brazilians, judging by the beach house homes that stood atop them. The crossing was pretty busy since most Brazilians have the same idea and try to get away after Carnaval to enjoy the last few days of the summer, so it was probably not a good idea for us to have turned up without a hostel reservation! In the baking hot sun, we trudged up and down the main street, the beach and the port area, desperately searching for somewhere reasonably priced to stay (prices were still pretty hiked up post Carnaval), but it seemed to be in vain. Eventually, Marisha went off to search for somewhere, whilst Rakhee sat with both the backpacks at the side of the road. Marisha was gone for ages and returned with nothing having checked at nearly 20 hostels. She felt a bit like Mary and Joseph trying to find a place to stay, and whilst no-one offered her a barn, one hostel owner did say “I don´t have any spaces, but we are having a party tomorrow night so come back then!”. Luckily in her absence, Rakhee had got chatting to a window cleaner (who turned out to be very well known around the island – well how many window cleaners does a small island need?!?) who said his ex-wife had a place we could stay at. Although it sounded a bit dodgy, being all hot and bothered we decided to go and check it out, and it turned out to be one of our better decisions… Veronique (the window cleaners ex-wife) had a great duplex beach house thing with bedrooms upstairs, a small living/dining area, kitchen and bathroom (check out the pictures and we simply couldn´t believe our luck! It was dirt cheap, situated close to the beach and was clean, tidy and best of all had HOT showers! It was pretty tucked away behind the road so its not something you would know to look for , or be able to reserve on the internet, but if you should ever find yourself in Ilha Grande, we strongly suggest you look for it! After dumping our stuff, we headed out for dinner and a general walk around the island. It reminded us a lot of Morro de Sao Paulo, but was a little more busy, built up, and bigger. It was a nice evening as we strolled the beach, before picking up some provisions at the supermarket and heading to bed. The next morning we were up early to catch a boat round to the other side of the island where the most stunning beach awaited us. The good thing about Ilha Grande is that many of the beaches are only accessible by taking a boat around the island, or trekking a few hours through the rainforest that sits in the middle of it. Since one option is a bit expensive and the other a bit exhausting, most people stay on the beach at Abrao where the main town is, leaving the other beaches pretty untouched and unspoilt. It was a welcome change after the madness of Carnaval and we had a fabulous day of doing absolutely nothing but lying on the beach listening to music, reading and making a couple of dips in the sea to cool off! It was absolute BLISS! At the end of the day we packed up and caught the boat back round to Abrao before heading out to this huge pizza place that prides itself on having almost 300 varieties of pizza. We have to admit that they were pretty good and satisfying given that we hadn´t eaten that much in our laziness earlier in the day! After dinner we went for a stroll and there seemed to be a bit of a street fayre going on, with a live music stage and lots of teens dancing around. There, we bumped into Yearime, Arthur and Nick who had been staying in Brazil Hostel in Rio with us, so we popped into a nearby bar for a round of drinks. With everyone being tired, we decided to make our way back to our little beach house, but ended up running into so many Brazilians who wanted to chat along the way that is was almost another two hours before we got there. One guy told us all about when he had lived in Wimbledon and how he could spot a brit a mile off and therefore knew we weren´t Brazilian, despite everyone else mistaking us for being so. But far more entertaining were three guys we met, about our age, one of which was completely off his trolley and was repeatedly singing some song that we just couldn´t make the words out to. They were heading to the party at the other hostel so we decided to go check it out and had fun all the way down the beach trying to communicate in broken Portuguese and song, but when we reached the hostel everyone was walking away and apparently the party had been cancelled! It was a bit of a shame and we hung out on the beach for a little while longer just chatting, but eventually decided to call it a night and headed back to the beach house.

The next morning we were up and out pretty early and caught a boat back to Angra dos Reis and following a brief stopover, a coach to Sao Paulo…