Heading over to Ilha Grande from the mainland the scenery was really similar to the archipelos in Croatia with lots of deserted little islands covered in forest all over the place. When we arrived into the town on the mainland it was like being in Ireland, about 20 Irish travellers all standing around chatting about how they missed the boat but we all got together (with Mariano an Argentinian guy who spoke Portuguese) and managed to get a boat to take us across.

Ilha Grande is an island about 2 hours off shore from Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil and it's incredible. There are no cars or roads on the island at all, just one golf buggy and lots of men pulling carts loaded with food and other goods to the stores. The streets may not be paved with gold but they are paved with golden sand and the whole island aside from 3 tiny villages is covered in forest. Plus the seafood in the restaurants was amazing.

I thought we had died and gone to heaven when we arrived onto Lopez Mendes beach in Ilha Grande. It is without a doubt the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life, jungle comes all the way down the hills to the beach, the sand is perfectly white and the water is just incredible, really warm, totally clear and not very salty at all! Plus as you have to catch a boat and then trek for 30 minutes to get to the beach it was practically deserted. I could have easily spent a week there but as it was we had a day and most of our time was spent in the water. Gareth even managed to teach me how to body surf waves which was brilliant. Plus we got to see loads of tiny monkeys on the track, so cute!

We also did a boat trip around part of the island and went snorkelling in Laguna Verde where we saw loads of different types of fish of all colours including a rock fish and some Elmo lookalikes. We stayed with a few Argentinian people, including a guy called Mariano. Our Spanish must be improving too as after a few caiprinhas in a bar right on the sand we were arguing about South American economics and politics! Amazing how fluent you become after a few drinks!